*Demand immediate uploading of Poling Unit results to the INEC iREV portal
*Women group threaten to strip naked if …
Aggrieved Nigerians Tuesday stormed the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, venue of the National Collation Centre (NCC) for last Saturday’s presidential election, demanding the electronic transmission of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), before any further collation of results of the election.
The protesters, carried placards with various inscriptions, and moved from Emeka Anyaoku street, behind the ICC, expressing their dissatisfaction over the failure of the commission to upload election results on its portal since Saturday, despite the stipulations of the Electoal Act and the several promises made by the commission to abide by the law in that respect.
They insited that the electronic uploading to the INEC’s iREV portal having been compromised, the results so far released have become tainted with irregularities and legal logjam capable of truncating our democracy.
Human Rights activist, Mr. Ilemona Onoja, one of the leaders of the protesters, said: “We came out on the 25th of February to cast our votes for our preferred candidates.
“The INEC Chairman had on several occasion informed Niherians and the international community that a process was going to be followed.
“This process involves accreditation with BVAS, voting, and our that ballots will be counted in the presence of everybody who stayed behind at the polling unit.
“After it had been counted, such results will be transmitted directly on the INEC central server which can be viewed by anyone or group or political parties who wish to do so.
“They also said that after the election, at the National Collation Centre, that central server will be displayed thriugh a prompter and Nigerians will be able to follow the results to confirm if what is being collated talked with the PU results for claims and objections.
“Now, all we are saying is, we don’t mind if our preferred candidates lose; just give us a transparent and open process.
“Let us be able to see the results real time from the iREV. INEC promised us they will follow a certain procedure as laid down in the Electoral Act, we are asking them to follow it.”
Alao, Ms. Lillian Kozau, another protester, called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow his image and legacies to be destroyed by INEC refusing to follow the law.
She said: “INEC assured us that it would be a transparent process. They assured us of a transparent process and that the BVAS would be used, which is supposed to be an electronic process.
“Yet, after three days, 23 states still need to be uploaded. Why? Does this mean we will be doing this for one week?
“Why will a result be deleted from a platform after it has been uploaded? What are they up to?
“All we asked for was a transparent process. We just wanted whoever we voted for to emerge as the President of this country.
“We just wanted hope; we just wanted things to work. We are not asking for too much.
“We are not violent. Nobody is holding any weapon. We are just trying to make our voices heard.
“Please, our President should call INEC chairman to order. Eight years have passed, and we don’t care what happened.
“We are looking up to the future. Buhari should not let his legacies be tarnished. Let them follow due process.
“Whosoever, we have voted for should be announced as the President of the country following the legal processes. Let things be done rightly.”
Women group under the auspices of “Angry Nigerian Women” Tuesday staged a protest along the road leading to the National Collation Center of the presidential election results, protesting alleged irregularities.
The women numbering over 200 marched to the ICC to protest what they called “rigged election results”, but were blocked from moving further by heavily-armed security officers at the junction connecting the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Defence (War) College and the ICC.
The women threatened to go naked if the INEC fails to accede to their demands on why the presidential election polling units results had not been transmitted electronically to the INEC-result viewing portal.
The angry women chanted “we no gree oo”, “Mahmood give us results, original results, na im we want”.
They carried placards with various inscriptions including, “INEC stop rigging”, “future of our children at stake”, “Mahmood give us our results”, “we are tired of injustice”, “occupy INEC now”, among other statements.
No INEC official was on hand to address the protesting women, it they expressed their greviances to the domestic and international media who were on hand.
At some.point, a plain cloth security officer, who probably was the team leader of the security operatives told them to leave the road and assured them that he would relay their grievances to the appropriate quarters.
The spokesperson of the protesters, Mrs. Oby Elekwe, said they were angry that the presidential election results were not transmitted via the IReV portal, alleging fraud.
She said they had been assured of being answered by INEC but if the commission fails to do that, they would go naked”.
Elekwe added, “They had assured us they will come and hear us. They promised and we assured them that if they refuse to answer us we will speak in the language of mothers. Right on this spot, we will go naked. Enough is enough. We are tired.
“We need a new Nigeria; not only for senators; not only for the legislators; anew Nigeria for the masses. That’s all we are demanding for.
“This is a group of angry Nigerian women who have come to take our nation by force. We have come to take it by force. We demand an IReV result. Electronically transmitted results, the ones Mahmood Yakubu promised which made us, mothers trooped out to cast our votes.
“He said from the polling units to wards, to area councils to the states. So, that’s what we demand.
“We need results uploaded from the polling units. That is the only thing that will take us away from the road”.
