The Labour Party, LP, is criticizing the results-collection process and threatening to sue over the outcome of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, National Secretary of the Labour Party, explained that most of its members were purposefully disenfranchised through various tactics around the country, claiming that they were more discerning in their strongholds.
While the party made breakthroughs with high votes in most regions of northern Nigeria, he claims that in others, her members were purposely barred from voting, chased away forcibly from polling units, or had ballot papers and boxes smashed and burned.
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He said, “Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kano, Yobe and Edo states are thamong places where such acts were rampantly perpetrated in violation of the electoral act 2022 as amended.”
He went on to say that in some places, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, staff and electoral materials were not deployed to areas known to be Labour Party strongholds, or were deployed late to frustrate party supporters who, psychologically, grew tired of waiting and had to leave polling units out of fear of the unknown.
He noted that INEC’s delay in uploading and announcing results, particularly where the Labour Party is already known to have seized the lead, is also concerning, emphasizing that the party believes it is an intentional act to annoy the party and their supporters.
Umar claimed that intelligence reports from the field revealed that in the northern states, electorates identified as Labour Party supporters were tactically denied access to their polling units by some INEC ad hoc staff who conspired with others to confuse the electorates by insisting their polling units were different and sending them to the wrong ones, alleging that this frustrated the electorates and reduced the votes polled by the Labour Party, which would have had more votes than the APC.
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He urged INEC to checkmate and call its polling officials to order, as well as to impose severe measures in accordance with the Electoral Act 2022 as amended, and vowed to contest the decision and ultimate result in court.
Umar Farouk also urged party members and supporters to be calm and law-abiding, but to be encouraged by their efforts thus far and mobilize even more for the next round of elections, as the party works to rectify the wrongs done to her in the Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections.
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