There was mild drama earlier today, Monday at the National Collation Centre, International Conference Centre in Abuja where results for the presidential election and parliamentary elections are being announced.
Agent flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, Dino Melaye who spoke on behalf of others walked out of the National Collation Centre for the presidential election results at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on Monday.
Melaye, a member of the 8th National Assembly from Kogi West Senatorial District, and a former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha; an agent of the Labour Party, and others staged a walkout on the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu over dissatisfaction on the process of the collation of results from state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs).
Dino had earlier demanded that INEC ensures that the results presented by State resident electoral Commissioners should have first been uploaded on the INEC result viewing portal IREV before being presented.
He argued that without the upload of results electronically on IReV, this year’s election is not in any way different from the manual transmission of results done in 2015.
Melaye insisted that the INEC Chairman reject the Ekiti results, claiming that there were instances of overvoting and electoral irregularities. He claimed that the results were not collated at the center in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, and that they did not trust the results presented by the SCOPs.
However, the INEC chairman maintained that there was no over voting in Ekiti and that the results presented by the SCOPs stand. Yakubu also said the process must continue.
Melaye, Ihedioha, walked out of the national collation center in protest.
Before the break, Mahmood had warned Melaye not to be “disruptive” of the collation process, despite the PDP chieftain’s insistence that the results announced by the SCOPs be uploaded to IReV first for transparency and accountability.
The collation of results in Abuja continued in their absence as more states are being announced.
