The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday said that results of the 2019 general elections were not transmitted electronically to its server, stressing that the Commission only experimented the technology during some staggered elections held in 2018.

The Commission said that the clarification was necessary because of rising controversies on the transmission of 2019 Presidential Election results from states to the INEC server.

Speaking during the Post Election Retreat organised by the Commission for its staff and ad hoc staff engaged for the last general elections in Osun State, INEC National Commissioner, Solomon Soyebi, explained that many factors forced the Commission to drop the idea of electronic transmission of the results to a central server.

Soyebi added that INEC experimented with electronic transmission of results during Anambra, Sokoto and Osun elections held before 2019 elections but the Commission did not sustain the use of the technology during the 2019 general elections.

He maintained that the late release of INEC’S budget for the 2019 elections and controversies over the Electoral Act, among others reasons, forced the Commission to jettison the idea of using the technology to transmit results to the central server.

“We piloted the use of transmission of election results electronically in Sokoto, in Anambra, even in Osun. What happened was that we were trying to pilot to see the desirability of such technology in our electoral process.

“First, our budget came out very late, there was also issue (with) the Electoral Act. For these and some other reasons, the Commission did not adopt that option. 2019 elections were conducted according to Law.

“We used the Constitution of the Federal Republic, we used the Electoral Act and our guidelines for 2019 elections. If you look at the three instruments carefully, the issue of server was not highlighted.

“Once in a while, you will see an experiment going on but we have to pilot it before we will deploy wholesale for election.We did nt use it because ofcircumstances beyond the control of the Commission,” Soyebi said.

In his opening remarks, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun, Mr Segun Agbaje, said that the 2019 elections were largely successful despite daunting challenges that characterised its conduct.

He, however, lamented the ”do-or-die” attitude of some politicians which involved different illicit practices, including use of thugs to win an election at all cost. He added that the Commission in collaboration with security agents in the state drastically reduced the phenomenon during the general elections.

About 13 Presiding Officers (POs) in Borno and Yobe states have told the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja that they transmitted the results of the February 23 Presidential election in their various units and wards to the official server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The POs in their respective Witness Statement of Oath ..........stated that the election body had, during their training, instructed them on how to transmit the results to its server.

SarkinYarki:
SERVERGATE!!!! INEC is even confusing themselves about the existence of the server.....Only God can save Nigeria at this point.

Maxymilliano:
How can any sane mind reconcile these two conflicting statements from INEC:

1. Initially, INEC says they have no server, that 2019 election results were not transmitted electronically.

2. We only experimented with server but not for 2019.

These two statements from INEC, are they in any way consistent

Jobac:
INEC has not committed any crime or electoral malpractices by testing the server in 2018, but as far as 2019 elections are concerned, there is no server any where either software server or hardware server. That is final...no case everybody should get set for 2023 election.

bigerboy200:
I know the PDP supporters really wished there was a server. The issue of electronic transmission wasn’t in the electoral guideline, and the constitution doesn’t provide for such either. But I don’t blame some people who believed the server story. Afterall,it’s in this same country that people believed bathing with salt water can prevent Ebola.

Racoon:

https://www.thecable.ng/presiding-officers-we-transmitted-election-results-to-inec-server/amp
So the story have changed from INEC does not have a server to we have a server but it was not used in 2019? Meanwhile, Mike Igini and other electoral officers have long exposed this stupid & irresponsible body for what it's.

I still maintain that this INEC still does not know how to tell lies.It's a well known fact that the electoral body under the APC govt have become incredibly stupid.

So as long as INEC is using card readers to read data that were stored in a database from a remote location, then they have servers.