Abia may burn if you declare wrong candidate winner of guber poll, group warns INEC
By Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been advised to thread with caution and strictly abide by its ethos in handling the collation of Abia governorship election results as declaring the wrong candidate winner of the contest might set the state ablaze.
Executive Director, Initiative For Ideal Development And Emancipatory Leadership In Nigeria (IDEAL-NIGERIA), Pastor Innocent Nwokocha, gave the caution in a press statement over the logjam in collation of the gubernatorial election results.
“We charge the electoral umpire to stand firmly on its ethos and principles of equity, fairness, and unbiased disposition in determining the final outcome of this very election result”, the statement read.
He expressed worry over the building tension across the state following the suspension of the collation by INEC, and subsequent directive by the INEC leadership for the Presiding Officer and other stakeholders to relocate to Abuja instead of INEC Commissioners visiting Abia as previously announced.
Pastor Nwokocha said emotions were running high across the state, and that any error of judgement by INEC could be devastating.
” We are concerned that the continued delay in the release of the final results if it fails to meet the aspirations of the citizens who have sacrificed among other things, their precious time, finance, materials and energy right from the days of continuous voter registration CVR to the collection of PVCs and subsequently the election proper that it will jeopardize the peaceful atmosphere in place in the State at the moment.”
The rights group also expressed worry that “voters’ confidence on INEC will get drastically skewed in the negative where public opinions expressed through the ballot fails to reflect the will of the masses as Abians await the expert and careful work of the election review team from the INEC National headquarters in the State which has as at this afternoon moved to Abuja.”
IDEAL-NIGERIA, therefore, called on INEC “to adhere strictly to the results as uploaded on the election day on her server via the IReV with consideration to Google time stamps on the results and use same to determine the final outcome of the disputed election results in Obingwa LGA.”
“It is key that neutrality is maintained and whosoever that eventually wins that LGA election without any atom of biases should do so on a square and clear basis”, the group said.
“The citizens are already stretched and stressed out as well as security agencies on duty since this election process began.
” It will be considered extremely wise to do the needful by allowing the will of the citizens prevail.”
