The Special Adviser on Media Projects to the Edo State governor, Crusoe Osagie, on Monday said the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, betrayed the trust of Nigerians for not transmitting election results from the polling units directly to the Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Osagie made this assertion while fielding questions from journalists in Benin City, Edo State capital.
He said first-time voters were likely to feel more disappointed by the shortcomings of INEC in this regard that it would take time to convince such people to vote again.
“So, INEC should be held responsible and I dare say that this thing that has happened has damaged the confidence of the average Nigerian as far as elections are concerned,” Osagie said.
“I am sure that in the next 10 to 15 years, there are some people that will never vote again because of what the INEC has done.
“A lot of young people trooped out in their numbers, they campaigned, they believed in a cause, they spent their money but with a stroke of irresponsible behaviour, you just destroyed their hopes.
“I don’t know whether the PDP would have won the National Assembly election but I know the people came out very strongly. The least you should have done was to give them their results.
“So, what you have done is that you have damaged these young people. Whatever was left of the hope they have for the Nigerian system is gone,” he said.
Osagie further said he could not categorically say that the People’s Democratic Party candidates for the National Assembly elections lost in the February 25 elections. He, however, added that he suspected that the process was manipulated.
He further advised INEC to practice what it preaches in order to have its name written in gold.
“What we say to INEC in the future is that you have to practice what you preach. And if you are not going to do it, let everybody know. Obviously, some people were aware and so we were shocked,” Osagie said.
“We have accepted what happened in Edo South in the sense that we saw that Labour Party came out very strongly to do the protest votes against the APC and by extension, punished our National Assembly candidates.
“We accepted but only later we saw that people were taken over at the Collation Centre and started writing results and when some people confronted the INEC chairman in Abuja, he started saying different things,” he said.
Speaking on the House of Assembly election, Osagie said the All Progressives Congress contested the election with the intent of impeaching the governor, adding that with the outcome of the results where the PDP is having the highest number of members in the assembly, such idea has been dashed.
He advised the House of Assembly members-elect to put the interest of the people first and make laws that will engender growth in the state.
