Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the country’s electoral body, Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) to save the country from “a looming danger” over what he described as a corruption of the electoral process.
In a statement, he said tensions were rising and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to let all elections that do not pass the test of credibility and transparency be cancelled.
Obasanjo said the decision by the INEC to return to the manual transmission of results was intentional, despite investments in electronic systems that would allow immediate transmission of results from electoral units.
“It is no secret that INEC officials, at the operational level, have been allegedly compromised to make what should have worked not work and to revert to the manual transmission of results which is manipulated and the results doctored.” Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
With BBC media currently reporting live protests amidst election results chaos in the West African state, the retired president has also urged people to be patient and expressed confidence in “the system is working right”
“I strongly believe that nobody will toy with the future and fortune of Nigeria at this juncture,” he said.
The former President went live on air a few hours after Nigeria’s two main opposition parties called for the presidential election to be called off and restarted, saying it was compromised by election fraud and widespread violence.
The leaders of two opposition parties, the People’s Democratic Party and the Labor Party, also called for the resignation of the head of the government’s election commission, a call the electoral commissioners have ignored whiles the announcement of results is still in progress.
It has been reported that on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, in about a third of the 36 officially declared states, the ruling party’s candidate Tinubu had 44 per cent of the vote, ahead of Abubakar’s 33 per cent and Obi’s 18 per cent. Although many of the standout results have come from the North and South East, considered PDP and Labor strongholds respectively, the final outcome is still said to be unpredictable.
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