Melaye, Ihedioha storm out of National Collation Centre

Agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties have walked out of the collation centre in Abuja ahead of the announcement of the winner of the presidential election.

Senator Dino Melaye was said to have mobilised party agents to stage a walkout of the collation over dissatisfaction with the process of the collation of results from state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs).

Melaye, Ihedioha as well as the agents of the Labour Party and other political parties had complained that the results presented by INEC SCOPs weren’t uploaded on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV), as repeatedly promised by the electoral umpire before the February 25 presidential poll.

Melaye argued strongly that without the upload of results electronically on IReV, this year’s election is not in any way different from the manual transmission of results done in 2015.

Melaye and others fiercely insisted that the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu must not accept the results of Ekiti, alleging that there were incidents of over-voting and electoral irregularities. They contended that the collation of results at the centre is at variance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

However, the INEC chairman maintained that there was no over-voting in Ekiti and that the results presented by the SCOPs stand. Yakubu also said the process must continue.

In reaction, Melaye, Ihedioha and about others stormed out of the national collation centre.

Before the break, Mahmood had cautioned Melaye not to be “disruptive” of the collation process at the insistence of the PDP chieftain that the results announced by the SCOPs should first have been uploaded on IReV for transparency and accountability.

The collation of results in Abuja has since continued in their absence.