The Peoples Democratic Party has said it will challenge the results of the election in some local government areas in Lagos state.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the collation exercise in Lagos, Monday, Wahab Owokoniran, said that a lot of things went wrong during the election.
“Most of the card readers were not functioning. And the manual (accreditation) that was done much much later has really disenfranchised a lot of people,” Owokoniran said.
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, polled 792,460 votes to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP who got 632,327 votes.
Out of the 20 local government areas in the state, the PDP won only five – Surulere, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Oshodi-Isolo, Amuwo Odofin, and Ojo.
The announcement of the results in Lagos began at around midnight on Sunday and was concluded by 8pm on Monday.
There was a protest outside the INEC state office on Monday as youths from Badagry came to register their displeasure at the outcome of the election in their area.
Also, during the announcement of the results, Owokoniran protested the outcome in Apapa local government where he said hoodlums hijacked the election result during collation.
“Eventually, I learnt that they came around the INEC office, probably outside to collate the figure and they brought it here. That was one of the reasons why I objected. If the thing was not properly collated at the collating centre, it makes it invalid,” Owokoniran said.
In addition to Badagry and Apapa local government areas, Owokoniran said they would also contest the results in Ikeja and Alimosho local councils where he said a lot of prospective voters were disenfranchised.
He submitted petitions to the INEC over their displeasure with the outcome of the election in some of the local governments.
“The smart card reader has caused a lot of problems and these are some of the things our party has been saying all along.
“We will go to the tribunal in some of these local governments.”
But Akin Orebiyi, the Lagos State resident electoral commissioner, said that card-reader malfunction was not limited to a particular local government or area in the state.
“Again, INEC regrets this and at the same time we also at the right time allowed manual accreditation which was also to all parties and not just one,” said Orebiyi.
“So to that extent, I don’t think a single party can now accuse INEC of undermining its fate at the expense of another.
We are going to look at the workings of the smart card readers, see where things had gone wrong, and look for ways to improve.”
On the issue of people protesting at the INEC office, Orebiyi said they ought to have channelled their complaints through the appropriate quarters.
“We need to understand the guidelines for the conduct of elections,” he said.
“If for example, in a polling unit, there was something untoward, it is at that polling unit you raise objection. And by the time we take the results from the ward, you can also object there so that that polling unit result will not be collated at the ward level.
“But if you left it at the polling unit undone, left it at the ward level undone, left it at the local government undone, you cannot come to the INEC state office to obtain what you could not obtain.
“This is why we took the extra mile this year; on February 7th we trained party agents to bring them to a proper understanding of the conduct of the election and what their responsibilities and duties are. And what measures they ought to take at every time and every electoral process.
“The only thing we could do is to receive petitions.”
Meanwhile, tension continues to mount as the Independent National Electoral Commission gets set to complete the collation of the presidential election results today, March 31.
