In a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged immediate action to address concerns raised over the alleged discrepancies in the results of the presidential and national assembly elections.
These discrepancies include disruptions in some areas, rejected results by some political parties’ agents, attacks at polling units, non-functionality of the bimodal voter verification system (BVAS), missing results on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) result viewing portal, and other incidents.
Obasanjo emphasized that President Buhari must not ignore the concerns raised and that immediate steps, including rescheduling polls in affected areas, need to be taken to ensure free, fair, transparent, and credible elections.
He noted that until last Saturday night, the election process had been going well, with a lot of money spent on introducing the BVAS and the Server for immediate transmission of results from polling units. However, some INEC officials at the operational level have allegedly compromised the system, resulting in the manipulation of results and doctoring of results.
Obasanjo urged the Chairman of INEC to save Nigeria from a looming danger and disaster and to postpone elections until the errors of the last two days are rectified. He also recommended that a committee of INEC officials and representatives of political parties and the chairperson of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) be set up to determine the areas where elections were compromised in preparation for fresh polls.
Obasanjo implored President Buhari to ensure that all elections that do not pass the credibility and transparency test be cancelled and rescheduled for next Saturday, March 4, 2023, with BVAS and Server officials changed.