THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said results from polling units in the 2023 general elections are safe and cannot be altered.
This was contained in a statement by the the INEC chairman for Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on Sunday February 26.
Okoye expressed regret over the malfunctioning of the INEC Results Viewing portal (IReV), and urged Nigerians to avoid actions that could foster disaffection towards the Commission.
“These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022,” he noted.
The statement also stated that the challenges were caused by technical hitches resulting from the advancement of the IReV portal from a platform for state elections to one capable of managing nationwide voting.
“It is, indeed, not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations. Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the ReV remains well-secured.
“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night,” he noted.
The Commission assumed responsibility for the problem and expressed regret over the distress experienced by candidates, political parties and voters over the issue.
Following the voting exercise on Saturday February 25, Nigerians condemned the delay in uploading election results on the IReV portal, which has left many doubting the credibility of the process.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.