Osita Chidoka, a former minister of aviation and prominent member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its handling of the 2023 presidential election, accusing it of breaking a pre-election promise to transmit the results in real time.
Despite INEC’s inability to test the election results portal widely, Chidoka claims that the electoral body’s defence is a “shame” and questions why Nigeria cannot imitate nations like India and Indonesia, which have large populations but hold better elections.
Chidoka also claims that INEC’s struggle with this issue paints the country poorly in the comity of nations.
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the February election, but the PDP and Peter Obi’s Labour Party (LP) had challenged that declaration, asking the court to annul his victory on the grounds that INEC had not transmitted the results in real time to the election portal, among other things.
READ ALSO: Olukoya Lambasts Prophets Over False 2023 Election Prophecies, Says ‘Pulpit Isn’t For Politics’
However, it was decided by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) that INEC was free to transmit results in any manner it saw right. Despite the fact that the court had dismissed the petition and upheld Tinubu’s victory,
In his words: “INEC is a monumental disgrace. INEC is an organisation I am ashamed to be associated with as a Nigerian,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, faulting the electoral umpire’s inability to electronically transmit election results in real-time.
“I came on this programme and called for third-party verification of the INEC system so that we are sure that on election day what is going to happen that day would not lead to a glitch. On election day, INEC said there was a glitch,” the former Aviation minister said.
“Despite not testing the system, it is a shame that INEC went to court to argue that not complying with its regulation does not make it a ground to cancel an election,” he noted.
