The Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun has slammed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its performance in Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections, describing them as disgraceful.
The Labour Party DG made this disclosure in a statement on Sunday, as he appealed to the electoral body not to plunge the nation into an avoidable crisis after a largely peaceful election.
Osuntokun expressed the party’s grievance at the conduct of INEC officials in most parts of Lagos, Imo, Rivers and Delta states, where he said a considerable number of his party members were disenfranchised.
He also expressed gratitude to Nigerians for maintaining the peace in the face of provocation by status quo politicians working in cahoots with INEC officials in an attempt to subvert their collective will.
Osuntokun said, “INEC should not throw Nigeria into crisis. First, we are grateful to God that the Nigerian election has not become the bloodshed that many enemies of our dear country had predicted.
“We thank Nigerian people that in spite of the glaring failures of INEC and the deliberate criminality of status quo politicians, they came out and stayed throughout and peacefully cast their votes.
“We are grateful to young Nigerians for their faith in Nigeria and the vision of greatness and justice we have offered them.
“We note that many polling units in Rivers State, Imo State, Delta State, and Lagos State did not vote because INEC did not send any voting materials and officials to these places.
“There is the case of Unit 16, Ward 53 at Ogbogoro Secondary School in Obio-Akpo LGA with more than 700 voters who are strong Labour Party supporters.
“This selective disenfranchisement violates the constitutional rights of Nigerians and a deliberate plan to deny Labour Party of deserved sweeping victory at the polls.
“At this point we want to alert Nigerians that the rest lies on INEC. INEC’s performance in this election has been disgraceful.
“We are sad that there is unnecessary delay in transmitting results from across the country.
“We are alerting INEC that Nigerian youths are impatient and would not accept any deliberate failure to transmit the real results.
“Nigerian people will not accept any later transmission of fake results. We have received intelligence of efforts being made in Imo State, Rivers State, Lagos State, and several other states to compromise the results.
“Anyone who pays attention to the mood of Nigerian people know that the people — North, South, East and West — are tired.
“They want a better future for their people. “They want Nigeria that works for all citizens and they will resist any conspiracy by INEC and the status quo politicians to overthrow their sovereign will.
“We call on INEC to quickly upload the results of the pooling units. INEC leadership should resist the attempt by governors and leading politicians in these states to subvert the will of the people.”
Osuntokun, then, urged Nigerian people to be vigilant and noted that “INEC is the one now pushing the country to the precipice of violence by its deliberate inefficiency and failures to implement the provisions of the electoral law.”
