PEOPLES GAZETTE
WORLD PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY, LABOUR PARTY, AND AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS DELIVERED ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2023, AT TRANSCORP HILTON HOTEL, ABUJA
Fellow Nigerians,
Members of the Press
Executives and Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, and African Democratic Congress. All other protocols observed
BACKGROUND
1. Thank you to members of the press for honouring our invitation at such short notice.
2. Nigeria held its general elections on Saturday, February 25, 2023, and this press conference is to address the urgent and important issues arising from the exercise which was for the election of the president, vice president, and national assembly positions.
3. The exercise, carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is still underway as we hold this conference collation is still on-going in some parts of the country.
4. We monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy that was exhibited at the National Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It is, to say the least, a rape of democracy.
5. The conduct of the February 25, 2023, election has been marred by widespread violence, rigging, intimidation of voters, doctoring of the results, and violation of the laid down electoral process which was communicated by the national electoral body, INEC.
6. INEC had announced a process which would require the Use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation and voting and that all election results would be electronically transmitted from polling units to INEC Servers.
7. The above process, published repeatedly, announced severally, and agreed with INEC by all political parties, was not followed, thereby leaving room for manipulation of the results after Nigerians had voted.
8. The results announced by INEC so far show monumental disparities between the actual results reported by our Party agents, our party members, and, indeed, millions of Nigerians on election day from the polling units.
9. We have also listened to the arguments made by collation officers of the different political parties.
10. The crux of the matter is the deliberate refusal of the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu as the National Returning Officer for the presidential election to respond to the demand of political parties for the commission to respect the pre-existing regulations that results of this election shall be uploaded on the INEC server through the Bio-modal Voter Accreditation System technology.
11. The refusal of INEC to comply with the laid down, published, and agreed process for the conduct of the election has compromised the integrity and credibility of entire presidential election.
12. We also note that on February 25, 2023, the day of the election, millions of Nigerians were left in utter doubt and disappointment at polling units as INEC officials across the country refused to electronically transmit the results to the INEC server as was expected by all stakeholders in this election. In cases where they tried to upload the results, INEC officials assigned to polling units could not do so. In some cases, they revealed that they had directives from their superiors not to upload…
