Protests rock Asaba, Abuja over ‘original’ election results

Protests by political party supporters have rocked Asaba, the Delta State capital, as well as Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Tuesday, over conduct of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Protesters in Asaba believed to be supporters of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, demanded that INEC do the right thing, as they accused the electoral umpire of rigging the poll following the shifting of the collation of results in the state.

This is also as a group of women numbering over 150 staged a peaceful walk in Abuja as they called on INEC to upload withheld results via the commission’s server, rather than reading it manually at the collation centre.

In a viral video posted on the Peter Obi Grassroots Mobilisation platform, Tuesday morning, on Twitter, youths in their hundreds are seen chanting the name of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, with a commentator describing the scene of the protest.

“This is happening live in Asaba now. Obi must be the president of Nigeria whether they like it or not. Our votes now.

“The Asaba youths are protesting right now demanding that INEC should do the right (thing) and stop the ongoing rigging.”

“Peaceful protest ongoing in Asaba. We will take this country back from them by God’s grace.”

Meanwhile, a women group in Abuja has threatened to go naked if the INEC national Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu fails to address the perceived irregularities in the post-election conduct of the commission.

The protesters who gathered under the auspices of ‘Angry Nigerian Women,’ Tuesday stormed the major road leading to the International Conference Centre venue for the National Collation of the Presidential and National Assembly election results over alleged irregularities.

The women were marching to the ICC to protest what they called ‘rigged’ results but were stopped by heavy security officers at the junction connecting the Central Bank of Nigeria, National Defence (War) College and the ICC.

They threatened to go naked if INEC does not accede to their demands on why the presidential election polling units results had not been transmitted electronically to the INEC-result viewing portal.

The angry women, who were singing songs such as ‘we no gree oo’, ‘Mahmood give us results, original results na im we want’ also carried placards with various inscriptions including, ‘INEC stop rigging’, ‘future of our children at stake’, ‘Mahmood give us our results’, ‘we are tired of injustice’, ‘occupy INEC now’.

Spokesperson of the protesters, Oby Elekwe, said they were angry that the presidential election results were not transmitted via the IReV portal, alleging fraud.

She said they had been assured of being answered by INEC but failure to do that they would go naked in the same way all mothers do when giving birth to a child, including INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.

“They have assured us that they will come and hear us. They have given us a promise and we have assured them that if they refuse to answer us we will speak in the language of mothers. Right on this spot, we are going to go naked. Enough is enough. We are tired.

“This is our demand, we will not compromise a new Nigeria because we know it is possible not only for the elites. Not only for senators. Not only for the legislators. A new Nigeria for the masses. That’s all we are demanding for.

“This is a group of angry Nigerian women who have come to take our nation by force. We have come to take it by force. We need them to answer us. Our anger is the result. We demand an IReV result. Electronically transmitted results, the ones Mahmood Yakubu promised us that mothers trooped out to cast their votes.

“He said from the polling units to wards to area councils to the states. So, that’s what we demand. What we are getting is not what he promised and we are not ready to compromise this election. We will not take rigging for an answer. We need original result.

“We need results from the polling units. That is the only thing that will take us away from the road. The same way we go naked into labour room and gave birth to Mahmood Yakubu, the same way all these women you are looking at here will go naked on this road. It will happen today if they do not come and answer us.”