The Director-General, Peter Obi Campaign Council, Akwa Ibom State, Captain Augustine Okon, has said that the failure of the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) to follow the constitutional procedure in announcing the result of the just concluded presidential election was an indictment on the electoral umpire.

Okon made the assertion yesterday at a joint press conference with a coalition of civil society organisations in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

He regretted that INEC promised the world free, fair and credible elections only to be derailed by declaring results alien to any constitutional or approved electoral process.

“Prior to the election, the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, had promised Nigerians that all unit’s results will be uploaded to the IReV portal from such units through the BVAS.

“But without any notification or explanation, INEC proceeded, follow the electoral process to manually collate and announce the so-called election results.

“This doesn’t only give room for suspicion but eventually shows a grand gang up to not just suppress the will of the people but impose an unpopular candidate on Nigerians through a flawed process.

“In Akwa Ibom State, we noticed the brazen connivance between the INEC and the agents of the PDP, who not only intimidated, bullied, maimed and forcefully abducted ad hoc staff of INEC and ended up presenting results outside what the people expressed at the polls.”

Okon stressed that the Akwa Ibom Presidential Campaign Council of Peter Obi “demands that INEC should come out clean of this daylight robbery and produce the original results which clearly HE Peter Obi winning the election with a significant majority of the total votes and having the required constitutional spread.”

He said the people of Akwa Ibom State and indeed Nigerians have lost trust in the INEC as presently constituted hence “this INEC lacks the credibility, integrity and honesty to conduct any free and fair processes.”

He maintained that the Labour PCC Akwa Ibom State has collated enough evidence to prove that Obi won the election in Akwa Ibom State, promising to liaise with the legal team to ensure that the stolen mandate is recovered.

Okon urged members of the Obedient family to remain calm and not to take law into their hands as the appropriate channels will be explored to recover the mandate freely given to Obi to govern the country.

In the same vein, the leader of coalition of civil society organisations, Nathaniel Ifot, flayed the outcome of the polls and appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on INEC to correct the anomalies to encourage most Nigerians who are desirous of change, “trooped out to cast their votes in favour of Obi.”

According to him, it was time for all systemic injustices and impunities to be addressed for the country to remain in peace, harmony for real development to thrive.

Also, his counterpart, Comrade Bernard Titis Titus, who lamented that votes at his unit in Ini Local Government Area could not count again after the LP had won, urged the people to be resolute in voting for all the LP candidates in March 11 governorship and House of Assembly polls, while waiting for the final outcome after various courts would have determined the cases.

(Text, excluding headline: THISDAY)

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