Ugochinyere asks INEC to stop collation over non-compliance with electoral law

The 2023 presidential election was held on Saturday.

Ayoola Babalola • February 28, 2023

Ikenga Ugochinyere and Mahmood Yakubu

The spokesperson of the Coalition of the United Political Parties (CUPP) and member-elect of the House of Representatives, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, has called for the cancellation of the presidential election, which was held last Saturday.

In a statement to Peoples Gazette, Mr Ugochinyere said the result transmission and collation process violated provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act, and the result collation, if concluded in such ‘unlawful’ manner, could lead the country into anarchy.

“Why ongoing collation of presidential election results are unconstitutional and a possible invitation to anarchy that must be averted now by immediate halt. As a constitutional lawyer, foremost advocate for credible election, spokesperson of the opposition coalition, and elected member of the Nigerian parliament,

“I have come to the conclusion to advise that in the national interest that the ongoing collation of results be halted in view of the compromise of the collation process and violation of the provision of the electoral act.”Section 64 (4) of the electoral act…a returning officer at an election can only collate and announce the result of an election subject to verification and confirmation that the accreditation number and votes stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with votes or results recorded and transmitted directly from the polling units,” he said in the February 28 statement.

Mr Ugochinyere said without evidence that some governors had knowingly manipulated the voters register as some results were not sent immediately from the voting places.

“Clearly, the results being collated were not transmitted directly from the polling units, but cooked figures by a group of rouge governors who were the same elements behind the omuma magic compromise of the voters register and should be stopped before this illegality throws Nigeria into national confusion,” he said.

State results for the election are currently being collated at the Abuja International Conference Centre, where final results are expected to be announced before the end of the week.

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.