By Sani Idris
The Unified Nigerian Youth Forum (UNYF), has urged Nigerians to ignore the jaundiced report by Yiaga Africa as far as the Imo election is concerned.
Cmrd Aliyu Muhammad , Publicity Secretary of the Forum, made the call while addressing a press conference on Monday in Kaduna.
He said the the Forum was surprised that Yiaga Africa turned in a completely different account of what happened in Imo state.
“Some of us are not surprised anyway because we know the antecedent of the group in question.
“If Nigerians can recollect Yiaga Africa’s report during the general elections was against the Victory of APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“In the same vein, its support also went for the candidate of a particular Political Party and its candidate in Imo state, So they wrote a report to suit the whims of the said party and their co-travellers
“It is instructive that all the demands of one of the loser are what the Yiaga Africa is parroting. That means that their positions are the same. Yiaga Africa is not only partisan but their opinion is tainted with bias fuelled by political considerations.
“Take for instance where they reported that elections didn’t hold. There was no empirical evidence provided, the time of their being there, who they talked with etc. All they did was to regurgitate what the Labour Party candidate told them”, Muhammad said.
He therefore said that while the results of Imo and Kogi states have been declared by INEC based on the wishes of the people of those states, that of Bayelsa was being expected.
He noted that as UNYF custom, they sent observers to the three states to monitor the conduct of the elections, adding that their usual interest remained how to deepen democracy with whatever results that were made available to them.
“As a non governmental organisation, we are not partisan and therefore have no affiliation to any of the political parties.
“As at this morning, reports from our field officers indicated that the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi experienced pockets of violence but not to the point of impugning on the integrity of the results. Both the security agencies and other institutions involved in the conduct of the election did their very best to ensure that the wishes of the people reflected in the results.
“However that of Imo was completely different as the election was free, fair and credible. Going by the fears of many that Imo was a volatile area, it turned out to be false. This is not to say that there was no untoward incident in isolated areas. Some vote buyers were arrested as already reported by the media and some people who wanted to disrupt the collation of state results were forcibly removed from the hall.
“By and large, the election held in all the 27 local government areas of the state. Where there was voter apathy like in the metropolis where people were angry over power cuts by NLC, the results reflected as such,”he said.
He commended INEC for holding the most peaceful, free , fair, and credible elections in Imo state among the three states involved in the off season elections.
Muhammad also commend the security agencies for ensuring that voters came out freely to vote in Imo state.
