Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday questioned the rationale behind the directive by the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) in states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) “to ensure comparison with IREV data” before issuance of Certified True Copies of Form EC8A used for the just-concluded election.
Spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, who made the assertion at a news conference in Asaba yesterday, urged INEC to do the right thing by allowing the states which are the original source of the documents to issue the same without comparing with the IREV data.
Specifically, Aniagwu said the reason PDP was seeking the CTC of the Form EC8A was to enable it prove its case at the Presidential election tribunal, adding that INEC’s directive to state RECs to compare with IREV figures would be detrimental to its case since the party was already disputing the contents of the IREV data.
Aniogwu said, “The Presidential election has come and gone but because our party isn’t satisfied with the conduct of the election, we felt that there is need to challenge the outcome in the court of law. We were able to get a court judgement asking INEC to avail us all relevant documents that will assist us in proving our case.
“We are, however, taken aback that INEC in an unsigned document sent to State Resident Electoral Commissioners directed them not to issue the form EC8A without comparing with IREV records at the Commission’s headquarters.
“This directive is a departure from the usual procedure for the issuance of Certified True Copies of form EC8A which has to do with results from the states.
“The most important data here is the primary data which are domiciled with the Resident Electoral Commissioners of states and INEC knows that the directive is not the right procedure hence they refused to sign the document.”
Displaying a photocopy of the controversial directive, he noted that the delays in upload and manipulation of the results on the IREV portal were already being interrogated by the party and hence it would not rely on data from the IREV portal.
“We want to plead with the leadership of INEC in the interest of country, justice and Nigerians who filed out to vote to do the right thing by allowing the RECs to issue the CTC of EC8A without having to compare with what they have on the IREV.
“The IREV data in this instance is a secondary data because the primary data which is the form EC8A is domiciled with the Resident Electoral Commissioners.
“We cannot at this moment believe that what was uploaded in the IREV data will be what actually transpired because of the delay in the upload of the data.
“In the actual fact it is INEC headquarters that is supposed to confirm from the states and not the other way round because the primary source of the form EC8A is the States,”
On the Governorship election in Delta, Aniagwu said the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state had no case with the elections as Sheriff Oborevwori won fair and square.
“The Delta State Governorship election was won fair and square and for Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and the APC to run to the media claiming manipulations in parts of the state, particularly the 21 local governments the PDP won is preposterous and we urge him to go and prepare for 2027.
“This election is won and lost and they know because they brought forward a candidate that is not acceptable to Deltans.
“So we advise the APC in Delta to begin to organise themselves possibly for 2027 because the governorship election result is a true reflection of what happened on ground,” Aniagwu said.
