• Slams 2023 polls as worst in nation’s history
• We didn’t tamper with IReV results in Kogi, says INEC

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called on opposition parties in the country to form a coalition, saying Nigeria needs a strong opposition to stop the All Progressives Congress (APC) from turning the country into a one-party state.

Speaking yesterday when he received a delegation from the national executive committee of the Inter-Party Advisory Council Nigeria (IPAC), Atiku said if there is no viable opposition, the nation’s hard-earned democracy will suffer.

According to the former Vice President, “the project of protecting democracy in our country is not about just one man. You have come here today to say that we should cooperate in order to promote democracy.

“The truth of the matter is that our democracy is fast becoming a one-party system; and you know that when we have a one-party system, we should just forget about democracy.”

Atiku further tasked the leadership of IPAC, led by its national president, Yabagi Sani, on the need for the opposition political parties to come together and create a more formidable front that will salvage Nigeria’s democracy.

“We have all seen how the APC is increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party. If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer for it, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn,” he said.  He further chided the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting the worst ever general election in the country.

“Recently again in the off-season election in three states, INEC doubled down on its disregard for the tenets of our democracy.

“We all can see how INEC declared a result in Kogi State where the total number of votes cast is higher than the total number of accredited voters in one local government. We cannot have a healthy democracy in an environment where all INEC does is to deliver the ruling party at all cost.”

Sani, while speaking on behalf of other members of IPAC on the delegation, said the group had chosen to come and pay courtesy visit to Atiku because the former Vice President is a true democrat and a political leader who treads the path of detribalisation and politics without violence.

The IPAC President observed that notwithstanding the glaring shortcomings associated with elections, democracy remains the best form of government.

HOWEVER, INEC has denied tampering with the accredited figures of voters in the Kogi Governorship Election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

The Commission described the allegations of manipulation of accredited figures as unfounded and a misleading report that should be disregarded.
National Commissioner and Member, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, in a statement, on Tuesday, explained that accreditation data cannot be changed on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), after the close of poll .

The statement read: “For the avoidance of doubt, the most accurate and up-to-date Voters’ Accreditation Data is available in BVAS, which is used for the authentication and accreditation of registered voters at various polling units on election day. It automatically retains the accreditation data of all voters.

“The BVAS is designed to primarily work offline without Internet connectivity, which facilitates faster and seamless authentication and accreditation experience for voters.

“However, when its application is active or in use, depending on the strength of its connection to the Internet, the BVAS automatically exports the accreditation data to the Accreditation Backend System (ABS).

“This exportation of data does not happen when the device’s application is inactive or when the internet connectivity is poor. The same experience applies to a situation where more than one BVAS gadget is used at a polling unit with more than 1,250 registered voters. This could be compared to a situation when poor network services delay the delivery of an SMS sent from one individual to another through a mobile phone.

“This is the basis for the caveat provided on the IReV portal, regarding the accreditation figures. The accreditation data cannot be changed on the BVAS after the close of poll,” it explained.