The Governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has decried the interference of political thugs in Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly polls.
LP Publicity Secretary Olubunmi Odesanya issued a statement on behalf of Rhodes-Vivour, in which he shared the party’s experience during the election across the country.
Rhodes-Vivour expressed his disappointment at the assault, harassment, and intimidation of many of their supporters, but commended Nigerians who stood their ground for justice despite the confrontations.
According to Rhodes-Vivour, the turnout of voters in Lagos State was unprecedented in decades, and it is disheartening that some politicians are determined to set the nation on fire.
He stated that young people have spoken loud and clear by voting and defending their votes even into the late hours of the day. Rhodes-Vivour considered the irregularities and intimidations across the state during the election as a disgrace to democracy, and warned that any attempt to undermine the wishes of these young minds would set the country on fire.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the international community to urgently intervene and restore the masses’ hope across the country.
He added: “It is disheartening that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials are culpable in all these. How do you explain that presidential elections are not being uploaded to the server and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines were returned to the INEC office.
“As at 4.00p.m. on Saturday at my Polling Unit (PU), we insisted that the results be uploaded, only to find out that even at that time, the INEC portal was not open for results transmission. The INEC officials claimed they did not have the codes to upload the results. With all the funds devoted for the devices, how they couldn’t transmit results from PUs to the INEC server baffles me.”
He alleged that results were rewritten in areas like Apapa to favour a particular candidate, adding that videos surfaced on how some people were using correction fluid to alter the results and upload them in contrast to the original results.