Ahead of the collation of election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday, the Labour Party has faulted the process of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections, declaring that it will challenge the outcome in court.
The party cited that its members were deliberately disallowed from participating in the electoral process through various means across the country, especially, in its strongholds.
The party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Ibrahim, made this known in a statement in Kaduna on Sunday, stating that while the party made inroads with high votes in most parts of the North, her members were deliberately prevented from voting, chased away violently from polling units or had ballot papers and boxes destroyed and burnt in others.
Some of its strongholds where these disenfranchisement occured in violation of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended, were: Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kano, Yobe, and Edo States.
Ibrahim said in some of its strongholds, INEC staff and electoral materials were not even deployed or were deployed late to frustrate the party supporters who got tired of waiting and had to leave their respective polling units.
He said, “The delay by INEC to upload and announce results, especially where Labour Party, is already known to have taken lead, is also worrisome and we feel it is deliberate to anger our party and our supporters.”
According to The PUNCH, Ibrahim also revealed that intelligence from the fields across the northern states, showed that LP supporters were tactically denied access to their polling units by some INEC ad hoc staff who reportedly connived with others to confuse the electorates by insisting their polling units were different and sending them to the wrongs ones.
This, according to him, frustrated the voters and subsequently, reduced the votes polled by the party.
While calling on INEC to call its polling staff to order and also ensure punitive measures in line with the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), Ibrahim maintained that the party would definitely challenge the outcome and final result in court.
