Verdict 2023: Anxiety as collation of presidential polls results continues in Abuja

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By Tunde Opalana

Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has appealed to Nigerians, political. parties and the media to rely on figures released only by the Commission as the nation and the global community awaits results of the 2023 presidential election.

He pleaded on Sunday afternoon while declaring open the Presidential Collation Centre at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

He said the official results will be shown on several screens at the Collation Centre.

“I appeal to all political parties and media organisations to draw their figures only from the official results released by the Commission as the only body constitutionally responsible for releasing official figures for elections,” he said.

Declaring the result, he said APC scored 201494 followed by the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar who scored 89554 while Laboyr Party scored 11397, Social Democratic Party (SDP) scored 2011 and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) got 264 votes.

According to Prof. Salami, Ekiti State had 987,647 registered voters but 315,058 accredited for the election. But out of the total 314,472 votes casted , 308,171 votes were valid and 6,301 votes rejected.

The Commission declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as winner of the presidential poll in Ekiti State. Prof. Ayobami Salami, Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila Orangun, Osun State who is the Returning Officer for Ekiti State declared the result at the National Collation Centre.

However, he said as the collation of results progress, the Commission may find it necessary to brief the nation on matters relating to the election but unrelated to the collation of results.

” When the need for such briefing arises, it will not be done here. A media centre has been prepared in Aso Hall right behind this building but within this premises for such briefings. Where I am unable to brief the media personally, the National Commissioner responsible for Information and Voter Education, Barrister Festus Okoye, will perform that responsibility,” he added.

Yakubu disclosed that collation of presidential election result in Nigeria is done at four levels after the conclusion of voting, counting and recording of results at Polling Unit level.

He said “the results are first tallied and collated at the 8,809 Registration Areas (or Wards). The collated Wards level results are tallied and collated at the 774 Local Government Areas nationwide. Thereafter, they are tallied and collated at each of the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The collated figures for each State and FCT are finally collated here in Abuja where the announcement of the outcome of the election is made.”

He further said “as we commence the concluding processes, it is my duty to explain the procedure and set the ground rules for the proceedings as follows: all accredited polling agents, observers, the media, the diplomatic community and security agencies should adhere to the sitting positions assigned to them.

“Results for each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) shall be presented by the State Collation Officer for the Presidential Election (SCOPE) who also served as the Collation Officer at State/FCT-level;

“After collating the result at State level, the SCOPE shall be accompanied to Abuja by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and security agencies;

“On arrival at the Collation Centre, the SCOPE shall be received by the Collation Secretariat which shall organise the sequence of presentation;

“The Returning Officer shall invite the SCOPE, accompanied by the REC, to the seat provided for the presentation of result. The SCOPE, following the format for the presentation of results, shall loudly announce the votes scored by each political party in the State, including reports of cancellations and areas where elections did not hold (if any).

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“The Returning Officer then invites comments and observations (if any) from the polling agents. The Returning Officer requests the SCOPE to submit the original copy of the EC8D;

“When all the SCOPES have presented their results, the Returning Officer shall display the sealed copies of the Results sheets – EC8DA (Summary of Results of Elections on State-by-State Basis), EC8E (the Declaration of Results of the Elections) and EC40G(3) (summary of registered voters in polling units where elections were cancelled or not held);

“The Returning Officer then completes Form EC8DA and announce the votes scored by each party and thereafter invites the polling agents to endorse the Form. The Returning Officer then completes EC40G(3) and compares it with Form EC8DA to ascertain if any of the candidates has satisfied the requirements of the law to proceed with declaration;

“If satisfied, the Returning Officer completes Form EC8E and makes a declaration of winner; and the Returning Officer invites the party agents to receive duplicate copies of Forms EC8DA and EC8E.