…Result collated in Abuja different from what our observers transmitted
Rebecca Ejifoma
The Citizen Observant Hub, a coalition of civil society organisations, Thursday, called for calm among Nigerians while beckoning international bodies to help the nation.
The non-political group made this call at the hybrid press conference on the theme, “Democracy on Trial, and the Truth Must Prevail”, held in the Ikeja area of Lagos following the outcome of the February 25th general election.
Addressing the media, Election and Policy Expert Ambassador Chris Iyama said, “We are asking international bodies not to fall for the purported results. We are calling for help.”
He also implored Nigerians to remain calm, noting that things were being sorted out. “This election on the 25th is not free, fair and credible. It has fallen short of international best practices.
“We are hoping that the different coalition will head to court and ensure that justice will be served,” he assured the public.
In his overview of the February 25th Presidential and National Assembly election, Iyama conceded how Nigerians came out en masse to vote.
Hence, the human rights activist disclosed that the Citizen Observant Hub mobilised over 2,700 observers across Nigeria, including the FCT, and deployed over 774 local government coordinators to observe the February 25th election.
According to Iyama, the coalition launched the citizen situation room in Jos in February, with over 30 data analysts observing and collating data from our field observers across the country.
He emphasised: “We had different key stakeholders to look at the challenges we might experience in the election. Our over 2,700 observers were at polling units as early as 6.44am before the arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
Iyama, however, described the just concluded general election as one of the worst elections ever conducted by INEC when it broke its own rules in the middle of the game, “not minding the feelings of over 200 million citizens of this country”.
He outlined the glitches like the late arrival of INEC staff and failure to upload the results as the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu promised before the election, the malfunctioning Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and children voting in the north as seen in video clips.
While cautioning that none should undermine the democracy the nation enjoys in this country, Iyama revealed that the result collated in Abuja did not meet with what their observers sent into their data centre.
“As a body with more than 10 million Nigerians, we don’t want anybody to undermine the democracy we enjoy. I want to call on the international body not to buy into the idea that we conducted a free, fair and credible election,” he implored.
