Equity International Initiative Condemn INEC In Strong Terms

Equity
international initiative situation room has released its electionpreliminaryreport for the general election held on 23rd February, 2019.

Coordinator of the Situation room, Amb Chris Iyama addressed a world press conference on Thursday 28th February, at the head quarters of CYPA Africa. He declared that the presidential elections was not free, fair or credible and condemned in strong terms the manner in which the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the elections. 

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Equity International Initiative (EII) as a Non
governmental organization  committed to
Promoting Human Rights, Rule of law,
Good Governance, Justice Reform as well as Promoting Religious Freedom, set up
the Situation Room on the 9th of February 2019 for the General Election and
also deployed over 11,000 citizen observers across the country with an app
called Equity Election Tracker (EET) downlaoded by over 8,000 observers aimed
at monitoring the 2019 general election.

EII Situation Room at Work

The Equity Election Tracker app was used to
generate all data/information by the observers on the field across the 774
local government of Nigeria,  EII
collaborated with INEC, Nigeria Police Force 
as well as two (2) Civil Society Organization (CSO) with the aim of fact
checking all incidents gotten from EET app which were quantitatively and
empirically analyzed.

Reports from our observers across the nation,
indicates that security personnel deployed to the polling units arrived early.
For example, 22% of the security personnel arrived the polling units before
7:00am and 43% arrived between 7:00am – 7:59am. However, about  30% of the security officers arrived between
8.00am – 9.00am and 5% came extremely late later.

There was 60% late arrival of Material to
polling unit between 10am – 12noon while 39% early arrival was between 7:30am –
9:59am and 1% of extreme late and no arrival of adhoc staff and material with
5% incomplete materials at polling units were recorded across the country.

EII observed multi-agency deployment of
security personnel such as the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil
Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria
Prison Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Department of Security Service and the
Armed Forces amongst others. They provided safety and security for the entire
election process. The EET app reported that 37% of the polling units had three
or more security personnel to provide safety and security of voters and voting
materials and maintenance of law and order within the voting areas. While, 33%
of the polling units had just two security officers deployed to provide
security to voters, observers and electoral materials as well as maintenance of
law and order within the voting area. Our observers also noted that some
polling units were grossly under-policed. Our observers  observed that 27% of the polling units had
just one police officer. Despite the perceived lopsidednessthat characterized
the deployment of security officers, 65% of the observers adjudged that the
number of security officials present in the polling units were adequate or very
adequate at all times.

Security personnel largely conducted
themselves in a commendable manner. They exhibited professionalism in
maintaining law and order and assisted in coordinating the electoral process
where necessary in most polling units. Available report notes that 85% of the
observers rated the conduct of security personnel attached to the polling units
across the nation as good and very good.

Specifically, 92% of the security personnel
attached to the polling unit were observed to be approachable to the voters,
81% of the security officers were observed to be impartial on election duty
across the polling units. However, about 12% of the security officers deployed
to the poling units were observed to be somewhat partial and partial. This
gives credence to incidents of complicity of security personnel on election
duty in some polling units. 

EII press conference

The observers noted that 89% of the voters
feltsafe at the polling units respectively. This implies that majority of
voters generally felt safe at the polling units across the country as result of
the presence of security personnel during the election.

The report from Observers show  failure of smartcard readers in three out of
every Ten (10) polling units leading to the slow-down of the election process
leading to counting of votes.

There were reported cases of deaths in some
states in the country including Rivers, AkwaIbom, Ebonyi, Kogi, Delta, Oyo,
Lagos and Zamfara States.

Incidents of vote-buying were reported in some
states, including Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Zamfara, Benue and Kogi states.

There were reported cases of missing names on
the voters’ register. It  was recorded
mainly at the South South and South Western region including the FCT.

 Due to
reasons best know to some INEC returning officers at local government, wards
and polling units, results were cancelled unjustly in a lot of
states,especially within the North Central, South Eastern and South Southern
part of the Country  .

EQUITY INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE wish to condemn
in strong terms this act from INEC.   

Report of confirmed Death during the23rdFebruary 2019Election.

Conclusion and Recommendation

We urge INEC to do all within its powers to
improve on the electoral process. Learning from the shortcomings of the
Presidential and National Assembly elections held on Saturday 23rd February
2019, INEC should ensure a better administration of the Gubernatorial and State
Houses of Assembly elections slated for the 9th of March 2019. We also call
upon the security agencies to ensure the safety of all citizens as the electoral
process advances to the critical stages of collation and announcement of
results. Finally, we appeal to all citizens and politicians to remain law
abiding and orderly throughout the electoral process.

Equity Election Situation Room Observed lots of
Irregularities and wide spread Violence during the election and is disappointed
with the conduct of the 2019 presidential and national assembly election
despite the postponement of the election to 23rd Febuary 2019 on grounds of
logistics.

EII Condemns the general conduct of the
Presidential and National Assembly Elections held on the 23rd of February 2019,
the election were marred with irregularities, voter-intimidation by thugs and
security agencies deployed to South-South, South-East, North-Central and
South-West of Nigeria.

EII condemns the role some INEC officials
played in compromising the conduct of the presidential and national assembly
election and as such declare unequivocally that the 23rd of February elections
was not free, fair and credible.

EII condemns the cancellation of votes in
major polling unit across the country especially in North- Central (Plateau
state, Nassarawa State and Benue state) and South-South which includes Rivers
and Akwa-Ibom and some parts of South-East. millions of citizens were
deliberately disenfranchised by INEC.

 EII
condemns the role played by INEC returning officers in altering and rejecting
votes. We condemn in strongest terms the altering of the results from different
States that was finally announced by INEC in Abuja. Many of the reports changqaed from what they were at the polling units by
the time INEC was making the announcements.

EII calls for immediate sanctions and
prosecution of all INEC officials involved in compromising the conduct of the
presidential And national assembly elections.

Amb. Chris Iyama Coordinator, EII Election Situation Room Executive Director, CYPA AFRICA

EII Recommends in summary to INEC and Security Agency the following

1. Adherence to INEC Election Guidelines.

2.Alternative/Configuration Card Reader. The
Card reader failed in so many Southern States and North Central and all the
manual voting that was carried out was eventually cancelled thereby
disenfranchising eligible Nigerian voters.

3. Speedy Resolution of Logistical Challenges.

4. Provision of adequate security and Neutrality
of Security Officials at all times.

5. INEC should call forElection in all the cancelled local governments,
wards and polling unit across the country.

Amb. Chris Iyama
Coordinator, EII Election Situation Room
Executive Director, CYPA AFRICA