The Special Adviser to the President on Political matters, Mr. Babafemi Ojudu, has reacted to the legislature’s rejection of transmission of results electronically by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying that there is no plan to rig the 2023 general election.
Ojudu said the issues raised by the federal lawmakers before voting against the electronic transmission of results should be considered.
Ojudu was addressing journalists shortly after presenting an award to a former governor of Edo State, Mr. Lucky Igbinedon, at International Conference Centre, Abuja, during an investiture of the 12th President of Rotary Club of Abuja Metro, Dupe Abosede.
He said: “Well, I don’t know why that happened, but I guess listening to the debate on the floor, listening to the NCC officials who came, it could just be as a result of technical considerations.
“They are saying that in some parts of the country, connectivity could be very slow, connectivity could be very unreliable, and if you have to move the results to another area where there is connectivity, something could happen on the way.
“And I think they also raised the issues of hackers, that even in America, with its technological perfection, hackers hacked results in some parts of America during the last election. I think that could have been the consideration for that. I have no personal opinion about that, but that is their decision.”
Quizzed about Nigerians who are saying that the APC rejected e-transmission because it wants to rig elections, Ojudu said, “No o…!!! We don’t have to rig. We will go out and vigorously campaign.
“There is no belief that APC is a party that rigs elections. If we do, we wouldn’t have allowed the PDP to have Zamfara, Bauchi, Adamawa, Oyo, and others. That couldn’t have happened under the PDP.”
