Contrary to the announcement by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, that the national collation centre for the 2023 presidential election at the International Conference Centre in Abuja will resume for business at 6p.m., on Sunday, there was still a big lull in the place as at 6.50p.m.
However, the hall began to buzz with activities as Prof. Yakubu and his national commissioners arrived the hall moments later.
Again, the centre had to close again moments after collating the results from Ekiti State the INEC chairman adjourned activities till 11.a.m on Monday due to non-arrival of further results.
However, the lull may have been largely due to the very slow speed of INEC systems which in turn made uploading of results on its viewing portal to crawl at snail speed.
The situation (slow speed of the viewing portal) has induced all kinds of suggestions by a worried public, most of whom said they suspected foul play.
But INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Barrister Festus Okoye, doused such fears in a statement, saying that the glitch was as a result of some technical hitches. But he assured that INEC engineers were working hard to make the viewing portal function at optimal speed.
However, Prof. Yakubu and his commissioners arrived the hall just about the time we were rounding up this report at 6.50 p.m. to commence collation of ready results, starting with Ekiti State.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC won in all 16 local government areas of the state.
Recall that INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had opened the collation centre earlier Sunday afternoon and set the ground rules for the collation process.
“The collation centre is hereby declared open until the final announcement of the results of the 2023 presidential election,” he said.
There are 176,676 polling units across the country.