Barr Kayode Ajulo, Constitutional Lawyer

By Femi Ogunshola

Dr Kayode Ajulo, a constitutional lawyer, has advised the Labour Party (LP) not to partner the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in seeking legal redress in the just-concluded presidential election.

Ajulo said this on Thursday in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The LP and PDP have alleged irregularities in the conduct of the polls that produced Sen. Bola Tinubu as president-elect and indicated interest in legally challenging it.

“I find it strange that LP is parleying with the PDP, whereas when the PDP was supposed to negotiate with the LP it did not; LP should be wary of this alliance”, he said.

He therefore urged LP to distance itself from PDP and pursue its case alone if it strongly felt that the elections results were not acceptable.

He wondered why LP thought it would get justice through PDP that denied Peter Obi justice during the party primaries.

He, however, cautioned against making statements that could heat up the polity and jeopardise the nation’s democracy.

“No one should incite the youth against the country the court is there for anybody who is aggrieved to see redress.

“We cannot afford violence in this country. This country belongs to all of us; no frivolous application should be taken to court in the name of seeking legal redress”, he said.

He urged the leadership of LP and its presidential candidate to focus and nation building and March 11 governorship election. (NAN) www.nannews.ng

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Edited by Uche Anunne

Felicitation

By Bolanle Lawal
Mr Yomi Ayorinde, a former Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in Ekiti, has congratulated the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, on his victory at the Feb. 25 presidential election, describing it as well-deserved.

Ayorinde, in a congratulatory message in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday, expressed delight that Nigerians had freely given the former Lagos governor and National leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) their mandate.

According to him, Tinubu’s victory is one built on years of hard work of a democrat, with evident credentials in both public and private administrations.

Ayorinde expressed confidence in the ability of the president-elect to turn around the fortunes of the country, as citizens look forward to the implementation of his visions for a new Nigeria.

He noted that Tinubu’s visions were clearly stated in his policy document during the electioneering.

Ayorinde, also the immediate past Chairman, Ekiti State Urban Renewal Agency, prayed God to imbue the president-elect with the desired wisdom in the task of transforming the country.

The former ALGON chief, who is also the party’s House of Assembly candidate for Ido/Osi Constituency II, congratulated the newly-elected National Assembly members in all the senatorial districts and federal constituencies in the state.

According to him, their victory represents the true voice of Ekiti people, who are determined to reward Gov. Biodun Oyebanji for his numerous people-friendly policies.

Ayorinde further appreciated the people of the state for their unwavering support and determination to deliver all the APC candidates at the election.

He also described the development as an attestation to APC’s popularity and acceptability by the people of the state.

Ayorinde urged all the newly-elected national assembly members to use their offices to facilitate dividends of democracy to the state and take it to greater heights. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Remi Koleoso and ‘Wale Sadeeq

By Angela Atabo

Yiaga Africa, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), has recommended legal timelines for testing new electoral technologies in Nigeria’s electoral legal framework.

The CSO made this suggestion in Abuja on Wednesday in its post-election statement signed by Dr Aisha Abdullahi, the Board Chair, and Mr Samson Itodo, the Executive Director, Yiaga Africa.

According to the group, the testing timeline will equip the commission more to use its adopted technology effectively during election.

It said that for the Feb. 25 presidential election, Yiaga Africa employed the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology.

The CSO explained said that the organisation deployed 3,014 observers in pairs to a representative random sample of 1,507 polling units, 822 mobile observers in all 774 local government areas (LGAs), 36 states and the FCT.

“This deployment strategy enabled Yiaga Africa to provide timely and accurate information on the election day process commencing from the set-up, voter accreditation, voting, counting and to independently assess the official results of the presidential election as announced by INEC.

“This statement is based on reports from 1,454 to 1,507 (97 per cent ) sampled polling units in Nigeria.

“The PVT statistical analysis was based on the number of registered voters and not on the number of PVCs collected.”

It said that Yiaga Africa’s findings on the election included: late arrival of INEC officials at the polling unit, challenges with locating polling units and insufficient election materials.

The organisation listed others as functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), uploading and transmission of results, among others.

“Yiaga Africa expressed concerns about the delay in uploading polling unit results for the presidential election on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

“Undoubtedly, the delay in uploading the polling unit-level results cast doubts on the credibility of the results management process resulting in broken public trust in electoral technology.

“Yiaga Africa notes that the delayed upload of the results on the IReV is a flagrant disregard of INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines, and it failed to meet citizens’ expectations.”

It said that Yiaga Africa also condemned the cases of violence and disruption of the voting and results collation process by thugs and hoodlums, especially the violence targeted at National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and INEC staff.

The group said that the creation of additional polling units was a positive and long-needed step by INEC, however the implementation failed to address overcrowding.

As a result, there were polling units with fewer than 10 registered voters and others with over 10,000. Some voters who were migrated to new polling units experienced difficulties locating their respective polling units.”

Yiaga Africa also recommended a comprehensive audit and investigation to unravel the factors that led to the delay in the upload of election results on the online portal as critical.

It said that persons found complicit in sabotaging the critical aspect of the election should be sanctioned.

The CSO also advised INEC to provide clarifications on its interpretation of key aspects of the legal framework on issues like results collation and transmission process.

It said that there should also be clarity on the threshold for determining the winner in an election and the commission’s power to review election results declared under duress or in contravention of the Electoral Act, INEC Guidelines and Manual.

Besides, Yiaga Africa urged INEC to sustain the uploads of polling unit results form EC 8A on its IReV portal. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola