The Centre for Peace Sustainability and Social Tolerance (CPSST) in Plateau state has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the results of last Saturday’s National Assembly elections for Plateau North senatorial district and that of Jos North/Bassa federal constituency.
The Deputy Executive Director of the centre, Salisu Abubakar Salisu, stated in a media chat on Thursday that the call became paramount due to fears that continued delay of the results by INEC could lead to a breakdown of law and order especially within Jos city centre.
“We have gone round Jos and I can tell you the tension is rising, people are not opening up shops; we have heard very aggressive comments from some people and we believe that INEC must urgently release the results in order to douse the tension.
“Right now, some people are expressing fears that INEC is trying to tempered with the results so I think the best thing is for the electoral umpire to announce it just the way it is, to save Plateau State from crisis,” Salisu said.
He described as unfortunate that five days after elections had been conducted, the electoral body in the state was yet to release the results.
He stressed that “we know that in every election, there must be a winner and a loser, we want to call on stakeholders; the government, religious leaders and party leaders to prevail on their supporters to exercise restrain while INEC declares the results.”
The Deputy Executive Director also stated that, “the way the election was conducted, it would be difficult to cheat the technicality of the process, the card reader has an e-collation application that transmits the results from the card reader to the central database of INEC so even before any paperwork, INEC already knew what was going on. Let them compare what is in their central database and what they have.”
