Nigerian businessman, Atedo Peterside, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to explain why it’s taking longer to upload the final 13 per cent of polling unit results in the Osun State governorship election than it took to upload the first 87 per cent.
The demand came after INEC resumed uploading polling unit results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) following hours of inactivity on Saturday.
In a post on X in the early hours of Sunday, Peterside noted that results from 3,612 polling units had been uploaded at about 2 a.m. but questioned the delay in completing the process.
He wrote, “Dear @inecnigeria, thank you for releasing the results from 3,612 Polling Units in the #Osun Governorship Elections i.e. 95.99% of the results by 2am approx. Please release the results of the remaining 151 Polling Units. We are still watching. We also believe you owe the nation an explanation as to why it took you longer to collate the last 13% of the results than it took to collate the first 87%. Was there a “glitch”?”
Earlier on Saturday night, Peterside had raised concerns after uploads to the IReV portal stalled at 87.48 per cent for hours.
He posted on X, “Dear @inecnigeria , many of us have been monitoring your Osun Governorship Election result uploads on your IREV. Why have your uploads stopped at 87.48% for some hours now ? If you could show us 3,292 Polling Unit Results with little or no alterations, why are you unable to show us the results from the remaining 471 Polling Units? It is now past 10pm”
Election observer group Yiaga Africa also expressed concerns over the delay.
It noted that the number of results uploaded to the IReV portal remained unchanged for more than an hour, from 8:48 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
It posted on X, “IReV Monitoring Update: From 8:48 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Election Day, IReV uploads remained unchanged at 3,292 polling unit results, leaving 471 results outstanding nearly eight hours after voting ended.
“We urge @inecnigeria to urgently conclude the upload of the outstanding results or provide a clear explanation for the prolonged delay. Transparency and timely disclosure are critical to public confidence in the results process.”
As of 3:36 a.m. on Sunday, checks by THE WHISTLER showed that 3,614 polling unit results, representing 96.04 per cent of the total, had been uploaded to the IReV portal.
Unofficial tallies compiled by election observers indicated that incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party was leading with 512,590 votes, ahead of Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had 438,204.
(The Whistler)
