Officials of Yiaga Africa have vowed to expose the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), if it manipulates the results of the 16 July 2022 governorship election in Osun state.
Samson Itodo and Ezenwa Nwagwu (Executive Director and Board Member respectively), announced this on Friday in Osogbo, the state capital, while briefing journalists on efforts being put in place to ensure credibility of the election.
The citizen-led organization noted that it has put in place well-trained election observers and well-established statistical principles to ensure that the results declared are unbiased and they represent the wish of the people of the state.
“Over the course of election day, Yiaga Africa’s data centre in Osun will receive 4,500 text messages containing approximately 54,500 individual pieces of information about the 2022 Osun governorship election.
“Once the text messages are received at Yiaga Africa’s data centre, they will be processed and reviewed to ensure the information is complete, authentic, and accurate.
“Since Yiaga Africa’s PVT is based on official results from a representative random sample of polling units, Yiaga Africa will be able to estimate the state-wide results for the governorship election within a narrow range based on well-established statistical principles.
“If INEC’s official results fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated range, then the public, political parties, and candidates should have confidence that the official results reflect the ballots cast at polling units; however, if the announced results have been manipulated and do not match the polling units’ results, Yiaga Africa will expose it,” it warned.
It, therefore, appeals to INEC’s permanent and ad hoc staff, all security agents, political party candidates, and their supporters as well as all Osun people to work together to ensure that the Osun governorship election is credible and peaceful.
This is even as it charged political parties, candidates, and their supporters to refrain from vote-buying and the related practice of compromising the ballot’s secrecy and undermining the value of the vote so that the voters of Osun state are free to vote their preference for governor.
It also encouraged security personnel to enforce appropriate sanctions for any form of violation of the electoral act on election day, especially ensuring the arrest of anyone posing a threat to the right of others to vote.
“Yiaga Africa calls on political parties and candidates to commit to the terms of the peace accord and ensure peaceful engagement ahead of the election and on election day. This also includes calling their supporters to remain peaceful.
“Yiaga Africa calls for better coordination with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in making arrests of political party leaders, agents, and anyone attempting to buy or buy votes before the election and on election day.
“Yiaga Africa calls on security agencies deployed for the election to respect the rights of citizens, media, and observers, including the right to freedom of movement on election day for duly accredited observers and media practitioners.
“Security agencies should deploy monitoring mechanisms to checkmate and curtail personnel excesses on election day…and ensure protection for vulnerable voters, especially women and persons with disabilities,” the citizen-led group concluded.