Ogona Anita
The Vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Baba-Ahmed Datti Had faulted the just concluded 2023 presidential elections.
Datti who spoke in Hausa in an interview said INEC shouldn’t have announced the result of the Presidential election without attending to complaints and rectifying all the anomalies brought before the commission pertaining to the Presidential election.
According to him, they were going to take action in saving Nigeria and protecting the sanctity of votes cast by Nigerians.
His words: ” We are here to reiterate that the Electoral Commission is violating the law. This law was read to the Commission. It was shown to the Commission. The Commission said yes, it has seen it and would continue to violate the law until it finishes…”
Asked which law had INEC violated, he said it was Electoral Act 64 sub-section 4 and section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Datti Baba-Ahmed said the Act has stipulated that it was mandatory that at the completion of an election, the result must be transmitted to what was called IIREV.
” Furthermore, an Electoral Officer must not document the election result without ensuring that the result has been transmitted to the IREV.”
When told that the INEC Chairman said that doing so was not a must, Datti Baba-Ahmed said it was a law that stands.
“Unless if a person said yes I’ve seen the law but I will not adhere to it .”
He refuted the allegation that they were raising such issues because they could not win the election, insisting that they saw victory in the long run.
“We saw that we won the election, but they started changing the result of the election before we get to anywhere. That was what happened. If we had not won the election, no one would waste his time“
He insisted that the Electoral Act stipulated that it’s only what was inputted in the IREV that would be considered; not what was held manually. “But they did not input it in the IREV. So with what were they conducting the election?”
When asked about why their sudden alliance with the PDP which was non-existent before now, he said those that were cheated would always have the same mission to search for justice.
” We’ve been cheated, Nigerians were cheated. That is why we came together. All Nigerians were shortchanged, it’s not only us. We are united because they cheated the whole nation. “
On the next course of action, if INEC did nothing about their grievances, he said that should be left for their political parties and the leadership to decide.
He, however, called on Nigerians to be calm and await the truth to prevail.
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