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| CSOs Officials. |
By Muhammad Salisu
The Collation of Northern CSOs under the aegis of Conference of Northern Civil Society Networks has said that the just concluded February 25th Election has failed to meet with the expectations of Nigerians in terms of credibility.
Speaking while addressing journalists, Monday, in Kano, Comrade Ibrahim Waiya, noted that the CSOs were dismayed over what happened at the National Results Collation Centre, where the INEC Chairman insisted on proceeding with result collation against the requests by some party agents to ascertain the electronically transmitted results.
He said that, "The election conducted by INEC has fallen short of the standard of all elections practices and ethics which has raised so much credibility questions on INEC and created doubt on the minds of Nigerians regarding Commission’s preparedness to conduct free, fair, credible and acceptable elections in Nigeria."
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| A cross sections of participants |
"The deliberate disregard to the Electoral Act provision on the transmission of results electronically had grossly undermined the process. Hence, the credibility question on the outcome of the presidential election was not in any way something that could be attributed to the failure of technology to allow for the needed transparency, but rather an outcome of non – application of the technology," Waiya pointed.
However, Comrade Waiya listed other issues that marred the election to include; strong allegations of compromise against some Electoral Officers, allegation of alterations of original results and accepting same at the Collation centres.
Others according to him are voter apathy which also affected the credibility of the elections exercise through a glaring non participation of citizens in the national exercise amongst many more.
The Northern Civil Societies condemned in strong terms, violence experienced during the elections in Lagos, Rivers States with the worst amongst, experienced in Kano State which claimed the lives of many innocent young men.
That Electoral offenders of any kind must be punished under the laws of the country to discourage others from perpetrating electoral offences again in the country.
Also, that, it is imperative for INEC to review all evidence of electoral malpractices presented before the commission in the interest of peace and security.
However, the collation applauded the performance of security agencies in the country who they said, performed wonderfully well in ensuring peaceful polls during the recent elections, and urge them to continue with the work in the next elections.
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