Osita Chidoka criticizes INEC over failure to fulfill election result transmission promise

Osita Chidoka, a former Minister of Aviation, has expressed his disappointment with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to fulfill its commitment to electronically transmit election results during the 2023 presidential election.

Chidoka disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Sunday.

The former minister said this days after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal upheld the victory of President Bola Tinubu.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) – former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively had challenged Tinubu’s victory.

They prayed the court to nullify his win on the basis – among others – that INEC did not do a real-time transmission of results to the election portal.

However, the five-man panel PEPT led by Justice Haruna Tsammani while giving its ruling on the petitions filed by Obi and Atiku last Wednesday, ruled that INEC is at liberty to transmit results in whichever way it deemed fit.

Reacting, Chidoka said, “INEC is a monumental disgrace. INEC is an organization I am ashamed to be associated with as a Nigerian.

He made the criticism because of “the promises INEC made with the Anambra, Ekiti, and Osun [governorship] elections”.

“I came on this programme and called for third-party verification of the INEC system so that we are sure that on election day what is going to happen that day would not lead to a glitch. On election day, INEC said there was a glitch.”

According to him, despite INEC’s inability to test the election results portal on a large scale, the electoral body’s defense was a “shame.”

He said, “Despite not testing the system, it is a shame that INEC went to court to argue that not complying with its regulation does not make it a ground to cancel an election.”