By KEMI KASUMU
An hitherto unpopular political organisation that suddenly rose to prominence on now generally believed to be “Christian Agenda based general elections”, the Labour Party (LP), has decided by calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend the ongoing collation of results of Saturday’s presidential election.
The party’s decision followed its agents’ participating in a walk out led by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Dino Melaye from the 2023 Presidential Election Collation Centre venue in Abuja, on Monday.
It was gathered that LP’s presidential candidate, Dr. Peter Obi, feared not to be contradicted when during his campaign period he called on the church in Nigeria to take the country to itself, a statement that has been interpreted to mean him being seen by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)-led Christian Community as having seen the dreamed candidate to help them make Nigeria a Christian State.
On Monday, the leadership of both LP and PDP issued a uniform advice to the INEC in separate media briefings in Abuja calling for the suspension of the ongoing process.
The Director General of the LP presidential campaign council, Akin Osuntokun, said INEC and President Muhammadu Buhari have failed to deliver on their promise of free and fair elections.
The LP campaign DG said the party had received reports of electoral malpractices across the country and accused INEC of not sticking to its guidelines.
Osuntokun urged INEC to carry out a comprehensive review of the exercise before deciding on whether or not to continue collation.
In addition, the PDP Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologuagba, accused INEC of rigging the elections in favour of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC).
The PDP also accused the electoral umpire of violation of the electoral act by failing to transmit the results to the INEC server.
The party said the integrity of the exercise had been compromised.
The PDP alleged that INEC deliberately delayed the commencement of collation and rejected the ongoing collation process.
The Labour Party had in an earlier briefing on Sunday cried foul play citing manipulation and manufacturing of results by INEC officials in states across the country particularly Lagos, Edo, Rivers and Imo.
Decrying the violence meted out on Labour Party supporters during the elections on Saturday, the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, called on INEC to cancel the presidential results as they describe as manufactured in parts of the country notably Rivers State.
