Jega while calling for a probe, charged INEC to tell Nigerians what happened to IReV during the last election
By Kehinde Okeowo
Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said he suspects desperate politicians infiltrated the electoral body’s election result portal, IReV, during the 2023 elections.
He made this known while featuring as a guest on Channels Television’s programme, Inside Sources on Friday.
According to him, politicians who wanted to win elections at all costs tried the same thing while he was in charge of INEC from 2011 to 2015.
He further noted that these reckless politicians were the ones who destroyed INEC’s efforts to get the polls right in the last election.
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Speaking during the interview Jega said: “In 2023, INEC did its best under very difficult circumstances, and a lot of these difficult circumstances were caused by the mindset of our selfish politicians who wanted to win by hook or by crook.
“INEC has over time introduced technology to make the process of election results very transparent with integrity, but from my own experience when I was in INEC from 2011 to 2015, I suspect that a lot of that has continued to be so up to 2023, our reckless politicians try to be a step ahead of INEC.
“If you introduce something today and you try it, they try to be a step ahead of you and beat it by the next election.
“I feel that something has happened, that in spite of the confidence and the very articulate manner the INEC chairman (Mahmood Yakubu) had spoken about the IReV, it then failed.
“I believe that some of our reckless politicians may have infiltrated it and truncated it but INEC will take the blame for that.”
He went on to allege politicians use their “said and means” to truncate and bypass the IReV portal.
While calling for a probe, Jega charged INEC to tell Nigerians what happened to IReV.