The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is reportedly in a big dilemma over the 9,403 presidential election results yet to be uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing (IREV) portal which, according to sources, are “missing”.
On May 2, 2023, results obtained from IREV show that till date the electoral body has yet to upload results from 9403 polling units, despite hastily declaring the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the winner of the election.
The presidential election, which was held on 25th February 2023, saw Tinubu declared as the winner on March 1, 2023.
However, out of the 176,846 polling units, the results of 167,443 only, have been submitted to IREV, which data shows that only 94.68 per cent of the total presidential election results have been uploaded.
A subsequent report on May 3, 2023, showed full details of states where INEC dubiously failed to upload election results on IREV.
Meanwhile, the hearings on the petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal over the controversial February 25 election has gotten underway today, May 8.
According to data obtained from the IREV, Kano State topped the table of polling units where INEC failed to upload election results on IREV with 1,101 polling units.
It was followed by Anambra State with 984 unloaded polling units, and Rivers State was third with 793.
Others are Imo State with 620, and Oyo State with 577 unloaded polling units.
Only one state, Ekiti, had a 100 per cent success in uploading results on IREV, followed by Enugu with just two unloaded polling units.
A source has disclosed that there is a heavy unease in INEC over the unloaded results.
The source said that a senior INEC official who craves anonymity revealed that the “presidential election results of the more than 9,000 polling units across Nigeria are missing.
The INEC official reportedly said: “This is because the original results from the Presiding officer from which the manipulations were done, are not available for needed reconciliation.
“Without the results, it would be difficult to arrive at the figures that were announced.
“The original results which they collected from the Presiding Officers from which they did the manipulation is what they are looking for. They need that to show the results they announced.
“For instance, in the manipulated results sheet where they have 187,000, they need the original to know if the actual votes were 187, 87 or 18.”
“This is the biggest headache now because the numbers are not adding up,” the source INEC revealed.
Reacting to the development, a tweep, @Ilesanm50940083, claimed that the missing 9,000 results are with him and that he will not release them “until we get to court”.
He tweeted:
“It’s here with me and they would never get it until we get to court. When a thief robs too much in one day and gets caught and he was asked to return those things he steals back to the owners, there would certainly be mix up. They robbed too much, and there must be mix-up.”
In the meantime, the hearing on the petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal over the controversial February 25 election has kickstarted on Monday, May 8, 2023, with a pre-trial hearing of the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr. Peter Gregory Obi.
