By BASHIR ADEFAKA
The National Peace Committee has joined the widening reactions to protests against alleged mismanagement of 2023 presidential election results process and therefore called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)to investigate the grievances being expressed by Nigerians against last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The organisation, headed by Nigeria’s former Head of State and Chairman, National Peace Committee, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, also appealed to INEC to take all the time it requires to ensure deliverance of results which inspire the confidence of the Nigerians in line with international best practices.
This was coming as former President Olusegun Obasanjo had advised earlier in a statement saying the BVAS and servers to which election results should be transmitted were made inactive because INEC officials were allegedly bribed. Addressing President Muhammadu Buhari directly on the matter, Obasanjo urged that urgent steps should be taken to correct the problems to avoid a looming danger.
General Abubakar made the recommendations in a statement titled, “A call for calm: Please give peace and the process chance”, circulated to the press in Abuja Monday evening.
He reminded Nigerians that the world has invested a lot of goodwill towards the country in the elections, adding that all citizens deserve to be rewarded by a process that ensures that their votes truly count.
The statement reads, “Nigerians must be reminded that the world has invested a lot of good will towards us in these elections. We have taken note of the dissatisfaction among voters who braved all harsh weather elements to perform their civic duties. All citizens deserve to be rewarded by a process that ensures that their votes truly count.
“We appeal to INEC to heed the grievances being expressed, to take the necessary steps to escalate investigations of all allegations of infractions and to ensure that justice is clearly done to all citizens who went out to vote.
“We have received reports of the culture of voter suppression manifested across the country through the application of targeted violence, disruption of processes, inducement of voters, intimidation, deliberate frustrations of voters and the challenges of the election equipment.
“We are pleased that INEC has accepted these lapses and promised to rectify these lapses. We appeal to the Security Agencies to collaborate with INEC in their investigations of these weighty allegations. Concerns about the failures of the INEC Result Viewing Portals across the country must be thoroughly investigated to ensure transparency.
“In the spirit of the Peace Accord which all candidates and their Chairmen signed on February 23 2023, the NPC appeals to all the presidential candidates, the chairmen of parties to take full responsibility for statements made by their Spokespersons and Agents. We appeal to all our citizens to remain calm while INEC continues with its process to its conclusion. Finally, let us all stand together trusting in the will of God.
“We appeal to INEC to take all the time it requires to ensure that it delivers results that inspire the confidence of our people and meet time tested international standards.
“We commend Nigerians for turning out in mass to exercise their civic duty by voting in the February 25 elections. We took note of their patience, dignity and enthusiasm which Nigerians lined up to vote despite observable challenges in the polling units.
“Along with millions of other Nigerians and the international community, we have followed developments since the commencement and end of the Presidential and the National Assembly elections last Saturday. Not unexpectedly, the elections got on to a rather rocky start with the problems around logistics and accreditation processes across the country.
“On balance, despite these glitches, the elections were peaceful across most part of the country. However, now that the process of casting our votes has been largely concluded, the challenge now lies with the collation of the results. We perfectly understand that Nigerians are quite disturbed by these developments. Against, this backdrop, we make the following appeals.”
