Jega to INEC: Probe failed upload of presidential election results to IReV

A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Tuesday asked the commission to probe why results of the February 25 presidential election were not uploaded on its portal.

The ex-INEC chief, who spoke on Arise Television, said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) introduced by the commission to replace the card reader was significant to the electoral process.

Jega pointed out that before he left the position in 2015, the commission evaluated the success and failure rate of the card reader to ascertain its importance to the process.

INEC came under criticism from local and foreign election observers over its poor handling of the exercise, especially its inability to upload the results on the results viewing portal (IReV).

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, rejected the announcement of President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the election over the commission’s failure to transmit the results on its IReV.

READ ALSO: Former INEC Chairman, Jega, denies saying 2023 elections were ‘compromised’

Jega said: “And if you are so confident with the planning process, and at the end of it all, there is a failure somewhere, you will take the blame because you are the leader.

“But it does not mean you are the one who has deliberately done it because you are compromised. We need to be fair in our assessment.

“I can tell you that the BVAS that was developed to replace the card reader is of significant value to the electoral process. The major failure experienced during the polls relates to the upload to the IREV as promised by the chairman.

“I remember the card reader failed in five percent of places of deployment which is 95 percent success. But the pressmen and politicians were just focused on where it failed. But it can never be perfect.

“I think we need to interrogate why the uploading, specifically with regards to the presidential election failed.

“This needs to be done, not just in-house by INEC, but in a very transparent manner. I think there will be a lot of revelations with regards to what happened in order to properly apportion blame to who is responsible for what happened.”

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