A senior Nigerian lawyer, Emeka Etiaba, said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was hasty in declaring Bola Ahmed Tinubu the president-elect.
Emeka criticized INEC’s decision, saying that the committee would only announce the winners after resolving outstanding complaints.
He revealed this in a TV Channel interview on Monday followed by DAILY POST.
He said,
“The issue of the complaints of the manipulations of the results sheets, BVAS not being uploaded by party agents were also swept under the carpet.
“The agents and parties made so much fuss about it; they were promised that it would be looked at; indeed, Section 651 of the Electoral Act gives the commission seven days to look into those issues before making a return, but they didn’t do it.
“There was no compulsion in announcing the president-elect; indeed, section 70 of the electoral act gives the Commission up to 14 days to make their returns; what is the haste about?”
“INEC has the power to review the results; they are still within time. But what they could not do before they declared the winner, I doubt if they would do it now”,
He said.
On March 1, the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, declared Tinubu the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
