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#Nigeria Decides: We Will Expose Any Fraud By INEC, Says Group

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3 Days To 2023 Governorship Election, INEC Sends Warning To Political Parties, Supporters
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YIAGA AFRICA, Ready To Use PVT To Check Accuracy Of INEC Results

While Nigerians are waiting in earnest for the announcement of the official election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, YIAGA AFRICA, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has assured Nigerians that it would verify the accuracy of the votes declared by the commission.

Naija News reports that the INEC has yesterday in the collation room, announced that it was still collating results and as such postponed the announcement of results from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held this Saturday.

But Samson Itodo, Executive Director of the organization, speaking at a news briefing on the preliminary report of YIAGA AFRICA Watching The Vote (WTV) in Abuja, said, through its parallel vote tabulation (PVT) method; the group would not hesitate to expose fraud if detected in the election outcome.

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“Please, we appeal to the media to tell Nigerians that YIAGA AFRICA will be in the position to verify the accuracy of the votes declared by INEC.

“We are assuring Nigerians that any fraud detected in the votes declared by INEC will be exposed. So there is no need for anyone to incite violence in the course of vote collation,” he said.

Also speaking, YIAGA AFRICA’s Board Chairman, Hussaini Abdu, while presenting the preliminary statement, urged all the stakeholders in the election to refrain from acts that could plunge the nation into chaos.

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According to him, YIAGA AFRICA employed the parallel vote tabulation (PVT) methodology- the gold standard for citizen observation.

“On Feb. 23 WTV deployed 3, 030 observers to a representative statistical sample of 1, 515 polling units, 46 observers to 23 voting points and 822 mobile observers located in all 774 LGAs.

“This strategy enables YIAGA AFRICA to provide timely and accurate information on accreditation, voting and counting as well as to independently verify the official results of the presidential election as announced by INEC,” he said.

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Abdu said that immediately INEC announced the official results for the presidential election, the group would hold its news conference and issue its statement publicising its independent estimates of the election results.

“If the announced results reflect the ballots cast at polling units, then we will confirm the outcome.

“If the announced results have been manipulated and do not match the results posted at polling units, then YIAGA AFRICA will expose this,” he said.

Abdu, who reminded Nigerians that the process was not yet over, urged them to remain peaceful while waiting on INEC to announce the official results.

“Political leaders should urge their supporters, in particular, to calmly await the official results and take appropriate actions against any party members who engage in violence or incite violence,” he said.

He recalled with displeasure that the group’s preliminary estimates indicated that turnout for the presidential elections would be less than the voter turnout rate for the 2015 presidential election.

This, he said was based on official turnout figures collected from the PVT’s representative statistical sample.

The Head of the ECOWAS Observation Mission to Nigeria and former Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, also attended the briefing.