Category: Nigeria Decides 2023

Collation of the February 25th Presidential election results has been adjourned in Rivers State following continuous threats to the life of the officer in charge of the exercise and his family members.

When all stakeholders reconvened at the Rivers office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce the results of the only two remaining local government areas, the state Collation Officer and Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa, Prof. Teddy Charles Adias adjourned the proceeding.

Adias, on Monday, while collating results of 21 local government areas raised the alarm over threats to his life by those who accused him of being on a mission to rig the Rivers poll.

He said the threats continued on Tuesday lamenting that he was receiving more than one million calls from persons threatening him.

Adias wondered why interested persons, especially members of the Labour Party (LP) were after his life despite having nothing to do with the conduct of elections and the computation of results.

He said those accusing him of rigging election in Rivers State were trending his picture and personal information on social media and calling on their members to deal with him.

He explained that his duty was simply to receive reports of the election from field officers insisting that his scope did not include conducting polls, computing and entering results.

Read Also: Police arrest four operatives for electoral offences in Rivers

Adias said until INEC corrected the misinformation and assured him of his safety, he would not resume the collation of Rivers results.

He said: “I have been receiving text messages and calls from members of the public, calling me to order and threatening my life and members of my family. For the avoidance of doubts, my role is limited to merely receiving reports. 

“I am not privy to any facts and figures emanating from the conduct of an election. I am not involved in voting, counting, and revalidation. My life is being threatened because I have elected to serve my country.

“I request for every necessary protection. I wish to adjourn further collation of this report. I am not the returning officer. We only sit here to receive reports. For every hour I receive more than one million calls”.

Despite the assurances of the Police Commissioner in charge of the election, Adeoye Aderemi on security, Adias insisted on suspending collation till further notice.

Details Shortly…

Ahead of the final release of the results of the Presidential Election, the Federal Government has warned former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to truncate the poll with an inciting, self-serving, and provocative letter. 

It accused the ex-President of a “calculated attempt to undermine the electoral process.” 

It asked Obasanjo and other complainants to allow the legal course on electoral disputes instead of threatening fire and conjuring apocalypse.

The  Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the government’s position known against the backdrop of Obasanjo’s call for the cancelation of the presidential and National Assembly elections. 

Mohammed, in a statement in Abuja, said Obasanjo was trying to incite violence. 

The statement said: “What the former President cunningly framed as an ‘appeal for caution and rectification’ is nothing but a calculated attempt to undermine the electoral process and a willful incitement to violence.” 

The Minister expressed shock and disbelief that a former President could” throw around unverified claims and amplify wild allegations picked up from the street against the electoral process.”

Read Also: Obasanjo’s mischief, hypocrisy on display again, says APC PCC

Mohammed added: ”Though masquerading as an unbiased and concerned elder statesman,

former President Obasanjo is in reality a known partisan who is bent on thwarting, by subterfuge, the choice of millions of Nigerian voters.” 

He recalled that the former President,” in his time, organized perhaps the worst election since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999. “

He said Obasanjo was  the” least qualified to advise a President whose determined effort to leave a legacy of free, fair, credible and transparent election is well- acknowledged within and outside Nigeria.”

He said: ”As the whole nation waits with bated breath for the result of last Saturday’s national elections, amid unnecessary tension created by professional complainants and political jesters, what is expected from a self-respecting elder statesman are words and actions that douse tension and serve as a soothing balm.

”Instead, former President Obasanjo used his unsolicited letter to insinuate, or perhaps wish for, an inconclusive election and a descent into anarchy; used his time to cast aspersion on electoral officials who are unable to defend themselves, while surreptitiously seeking to dress his personal choice in the garb of the people’s choice. This is duplicitous.”

The Minister reminded the former President that organising elections in Nigeria were “not a mean feat, considering that the voter population of 93,469,008 in the country is 16,742,916 more than the total number of registered voters, at 76,726,092, in 14 West African nations put together.” 

He said: ”With the deployment of over 1,265,227 electoral officials, the infusion of technology to enhance the electoral process and the logistical nightmare of sending election materials across our vast country, INEC seems to be availing itself creditably, going by the preliminary reports of the ECOWAS Electoral Observation Mission and the Commonwealth Observer Group, among other groups that observed the election.

”Therefore, those arrogating to themselves the power to cancel an election and unilaterally fix a date for a new one, ostensibly to ameliorate perceived electoral infractions, should please exercise restraint and allow the official electoral body to conclude its duty by announcing the results of the 2023 national elections.

‘After that, anyone who is aggrieved must follow the stipulated legal process put in place to adjudicate electoral disputes, instead of threatening fire and conjuring apocalypse. “