- You must upload results to server – Atiku tells INEC
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – All is now set for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to formally commence the collation of Saturday’s presidential election results today, Sunday at 6 pm local time.
Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this while formally opening the INEC 2023 Presidential Election Results Collation Centre at the International Conference Centre (ICC) Abuja.
According to him, the collation of presidential election results in Nigeria is done at four levels after the conclusion of voting, counting and recording of results at the Polling Unit (PU) level.
In officially declaring open the National Collation Centre, the INEC boss said; “As we await the arrival of the State Collation Officers for the Presidential Election SCOPE, will now take a break and resume at 6pm. We are certain that by 6pm, one or two of the SCOPEs will arrive with the results. So we begin the process of collation. I thank you very much. We will resume at 6pm”, he said.
On the delay in the collation of results, Yakubu said the process has to go through four levels.
He said; “Coalition of presidential election results in Nigeria is done at four levels after the conclusion of voting, counting, recording of results at the various polling units, the results are collated at the 8,809 registration areas or wards.
“The collated ward level results are tallied and collated at the 774 local government areas nationwide. Thereafter, they are tallied and collated in each of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The collated figures for each state and the Federal Capital Territory are finally collated here in Abuja where the announcement of the outcome of the election will be made by the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, who also doubles are the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Federation. And this is a duty that I am privileged to perform and it would be done here.
Atiku Task INEC On Results’ Upload
Ahead of the planned commencement of the presidential election collation by INEC, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has asked the Commission’s Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to ensure Saturday’s results are uploaded to the server as promised.
According to Atiku, further delay in instructing the Collation Officers to upload the results from the Polling Units into its server would raise suspicion that something untoward may be in the offing.
In a statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, the PDP Standard bearer said the call has become imperative “to checkmate some governors who are trying to compromise the results at the local government collation level.”
