INEC Denies Wasting Taxpayers’ Money After ‘Glitch’ In Result Upload

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, denied wasting taxpayers’ money following its inability to upload all the February 25 presidential election results on its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

In March, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, admitted some glitches experienced during the conduct of presidential and National Assembly polls.

However, speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on Thursday, INEC spokesman, Festus Okoye said it is wrong to suggest that the electoral body wasted taxpayers’ money.

He explained that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was successfully used for voter accreditation, and result upload for the polls.

“We are only talking about result upload for the presidential election only. It is not true or correct to insinuate even remotely that taxpayers’ money was wasted, and the machine did not work,” Okoye said.

Earlier, Okoye said the glitch experienced in the upload of the February 25 presidential election in the country should not write off the entire polls held nationwide.

He urged Nigerians not to judge the electoral empire as a result of the challenge the commission experienced in the upload of the presidential election.

“It is not fair to judge the entire performance of the commission on the basis of a glitch in the result upload for the presidential election,” he said.

According to Okoye, the law has empowered political parties to know what goes on at the polling units.

“Almost all the political parties nominated and got accredited at least over 170,000 polling agents. What that means is that they had primary evidence of the results from the polling units.

“It is those results from the polling units, together with the BVAS as a machine itself that goes to the collation centre. So, it is not true for a political party to rely only on result upload in order to get the evidence with which it wants to prosecute its case in court,” he added.