2023: Melaye, others allege manipulation as INEC announces Ekiti, Kwara, Osun, Ondo results

The agent of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Dino Melaye, and other party agents present have alleged discrepancies in the results declared so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Melaye was speaking as the collation of presidential election results resumed at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Abuja on Monday.

Melaye also noted the failure of INEC to upload results on the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV, adding that the action contradicts the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the avowed integrity of the electoral umpire.

Melaye’s protest which was loud and disruptive at the commencement of collation on Monday comes as allegations of irregularities over the conduct of the Saturday exercise swell in some parts of the country.

According to him, the failure to upload results meant that INEC did not follow what it preached, even as he insisted that INEC must project a copy of the uploaded results from each state, on one of the screens at the collation centers for transparency and integrity of the process.

He said figures declared by Ekiti State Collation Officer, Prof Akim Olawale Lasisi, did not tally with the number of accredited voters, adding that there was over-voting in Ekiti and the result should not stand.

Melaye’s position was immediately corroborated by Labour Party, LP, and Action Alliance, AA, agents, who called for the cancellation of the results for over-voting.

Also, the Action Democratic Party Agent, ADP, also contested the results and insisted they were not transparent, but had alleged infractions as the declared results were not uploaded on the IReV as provided by the Electoral Act 2022.

“We will not tolerate failure. We must make sure that the right thing is done. The INEC Chairman is putting his integrity to test; Nigerians are watching, the world is watching, even the dead are watching. We’ll make sure that only authentic results are what will be announced here today,” Melaye said.

The Agent of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Babatunde Ogala SAN, however, noted that the law is clear on the issue of declared results, that they can only be challenged in court.

On his part, the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, insisted that figures cited by the PDP agent and all others who corroborated his position were at variance with those declared by the collation officer.

Meanwhile, the results for Kwara State as declared by the State’s Collation Officer were as followed: APC: 263,572,
PDP: 136,909, LP 31,166, and NNPP 3,101. The total votes cast were 496683, while the total valid votes were 469971, and 26712 votes were rejected.

For Osun State, the results as declared by the state collation officer were as follows: APC: 343,945, PDP: 354,366, LP: 23,283 and NNPP: 713; total registered voters: 1,954,800; total accredited voters: 759362; total valid votes: 733,203; total rejected votes:
23,541and the total votes cast were 756,744.

According to results declared for Ondo State, APC won by a wide margin, scoring 369,924 votes ahead of the PDP at a distance with 115,463, LP with 47,350, and NNPP with 930. The total valid votes were 551,008, total rejected votes were 19,009 and total votes cast were 570,017.