It regretted that the National Assembly had not made any attempt to amend the Electoral Act to make real-time transmission of results mandatory.
The National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had not done anything substantial to gain the confidence of voters.
He alleged conspiracy to perpetuate electoral heists, hence the “ impediments mounted against the legalisation of electronic transmission of results in real time.”
HURIWA said: “We have watched with unfathomable amazement, the attempt, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to once more hoodwink Nigerian voters in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states into believing their propaganda that all the ‘glitches’ experienced during the general elections of February 2023 had been taken care of”.
“We are aware that INEC, expressed its readiness to conduct the November 11 governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states. INEC Acting Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Mary Nkem, gave this assurance at a People’s Townhall on Election Security in Abuja.”
The group, however, dismissed the reassurance as “mere paper weight.”
In a related development, Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASF France), also known as Lawyers without Borders, yesterday, said this year’s general elections and subsequent court cases worsened cases of violation of human rights on the Internet across Nigeria.
While stressing the need to sensitise Nigerians about digital rights, the organisation observed that human rights that are traditionally protected offline should also be protected and respected online.
Country Director of ASF France, Angela Uwandu Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, made the submission at an e-rights training for judges and lawyers on digital rights in Abuja.
She added that her organisation was developing a platform under the e-rights project, where citizens, activists and journalists could report incidents of digital rights violations.
Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, said the significance of a training on digital rights cannot be overstated in an increasingly interconnected world, where the “digital realm intertwines with every facet of our lives.”
While assuring that the judiciary will ensure that rights of Nigerians whether offline or online are protected, the judge, represented by Justice Ngozika Ndukwe-Nwabulu, stated that the training could be highly useful for a variety of reasons.
Also speaking, Vice President of ASF France, Ivan Paneff, said the challenges of rights abuse on the Internet space do not only affect Nigeria, noting that the invention of new tools, legislations, text and international agreement called for the need to tackle noticeable abuses.
