Morka stated that the group’s actions exceeded their mandate as election observers.
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“Yiaga Africa is overreaching its election observer mission by second-guessing INEC on the result of last Saturday’s Edo State gubernatorial election.
“INEC is the sole statutory authority for the conduct and declaration of election results. Yiaga Africa is not and must desist from constituting itself as a parallel agency for the declaration of election results,” Morka stated.
The party further accused the civil society organisation of making unfounded allegations about the manipulation of election results, asserting that these claims were not backed by evidence and were based on speculative data.
“Alleging that results were manipulated without hard facts and figures, but based on some statistical guesswork, is a clear disservice to the electoral process. Yiaga Africa’s report is a travesty, replete with methodological flaws, politicised observations, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies,” Morka added.
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Morka emphasized that election observers like Yiaga Africa must respect INEC’s statutory role and avoid overstepping their boundaries.
He cautioned the organization against creating confusion by presenting a “parallel election process” through unverified and questionable statistical data.
He warned, “Election observer missions are not election management bodies and should not encroach upon INEC’s statutory authority as the sole body responsible for election management in Nigeria. Any attempt to do so would be a clear violation of the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“Declaring or second-guessing the Edo State gubernatorial result based on unsubstantiated, unverified, and highly questionable statistical parameters created by Yiaga Africa is designed to create unnecessary confusion.”
On Monday, Yiaga Africa criticized the conduct of the election, stating that both the process and the declared results lacked integrity.
The organization alleged widespread irregularities, including result manipulation by collation officers.
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