BREAKING: Returning Officer Used Results From IReV To Declare Lawal Winner In Zamfara – Shinkafi

Dr. Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi, for­mer deputy chairman dissolved All Progressives Congress (APC) Zamfara governorship campaign council has hailed the judgment of the Appeal Court which declared the March 18th governorship elec­tion in Zamfara State inconclusive.....CONTINUE READING

Shinkafi, in an interview in Arise TV on Friday stated that the Returning Officer in that election wrongly used results generated from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to declare Dauda Lawal winner.

The APC chieftain who also stated that IReV is unknown to law, stressed that about 156,000 voters were disenfranchised and expressed optimism that the APC will come out victorious in the sup­plementary election.

He said, “Three justices of the Court of Appeal delivered judg­ment which upturned Dauda Law­al as governor of Zamfara State and declared the election inconclusive. Election in Maradun Local Govern­ment Area (LGA) was declared in­conclusive, Birnin Magaji and also Bukkuyum. In Birnin Magaji, in 80 polling units election wasn’t con­ducted and 46,000 eligible voters were disenfranchised. They were denied the opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights.

“In Bukkuyum LGA, there are 21 polling units, of more than 10,000 eligible voters, election was also not conducted and they were also dis­enfranchised from exercising their constitutional rights.

“In Maradun, there are two re­sults, a result was collated manu­ally, in compliance with INEC elec­tion regulation manual for conduct of 2023 election and also electoral act 2022 as amended. That result was rejected recklessly and deliber­ately by the state Returning Officer who conducted the election of 18th March 2023. He went to the IReV portal to generate results from the server and declared Dauda Lawal as the winner of the election.

“Going by the judicial pro­nouncement by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, in the case of Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Allied Peoples Movement (APM), IReV is unknown to the law. IReV is just an innovation by INEC to view the results of polling units that is the result generated from form EC8A that is the only use of IReV.

“According to the judgment by the Supreme Court, Bimodal Vot­er Accreditation System (BVAS) is only used for the accreditation of voters. You cannot use BVAS to transmit election results. Transmis­sion and collation of election results, in line with the INEC election regu­lation manual 2023, are to be done manually and not electronically