The manual tabulation of votes for the presidential election, which some claim violates the terms of the 2022 electoral act, has continued to draw mixed reactions.

Recall that in the lead-up to the presidential election, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, assured Nigerians that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or BVAS, would be used at the various polling places throughout the nation to upload election results in real time.

Festus Okoye, the INEC's national commissioner for voter education, also made a similar commitment while appearing on various media and public platforms.

However, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, attacked the electoral body after the INEC failed to use the BVAS for the presidential election, claiming that its officials had been compromised and that the results had been manipulated.

On Monday, Obasanjo gave a speech as the results of the elections for the National Assembly and the presidency were still being tallied.

He asked Buhari to order the cancellation of altered results and ensure that the commission embarks on fresh polls on Saturday, March 4, 2023.

According to Obasanjo, the commission spent a lot of money introducing the BVAS and the server to transmit results from polling units immediately.

“It is no secret that INEC officials, at the operational level, have been allegedly compromised to make what should have worked not work and to revert to manual transmission of results, which is manipulated and the results doctored,” Obasanjo said.

But in a swift response to Obasanjo’s call to cancel some of the polls, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate (APC), Bola Tinubu, called on Buhari not to allow Obasanjo to lure him into staining his democratic credentials.

Tinubu, in a statement by Special Adviser, Media, Communications, and Public Affairs, APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC), Dele Alake, urged Nigerians to reject Obasanjo’s dubious and hypocritical advice and stay strictly and firmly on the path of constitutionalism and democratic due process.

While further noting that the results that were brought outside of BVAS and Server appear not to be a true reflection of the will of Nigerians, the former President appealed to the Chairman of INEC to save Nigeria from the looming danger and disaster waiting to happen by canceling the election.

Also, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) demanded a fresh election, saying the February 25 presidential election had been “irretrievably compromised."

The PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, and their LP and ADC counterparts, Julius Abure and Ralph Nwosu, made this known at a joint press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.

They alleged that officials of the INEC manipulated Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections at polling units by failing to upload results electronically on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

They also declared a vote of no confidence in INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu, asking him to immediately step aside for an impartial person to take over and conduct a fresh election.

Earlier, before the joint statement, the agents of the PDP, Dino Melaye and Emeka Ihedioha, an agent of the Labour Party, amongst others, had staged a walkout on the INEC chairman over dissatisfaction with the process of the collation of results from state collation officers for the presidential election, starting with Ekiti.

Melaye, Ihedioha, the Labour Party’s agents, and others complained that the results presented by INEC SCOPs weren’t uploaded on IReV as repeatedly promised by the electoral umpire before the February 25 presidential poll.

Melaye argued strongly that without the upload of results electronically on IReV, this year’s election is not in any way different from the manual transmission of results done in 2015.

However, the INEC chairman maintained that there was no over-voting in Ekiti and that the results presented by the SCOPs stand. Yakubu also said the process must continue.

In a related development, the former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has asked INEC to take note of the allegations of misconduct trailing the presidential election.

Abdulsalami, who also heads the National Peace Committee (NPC), stated that there were genuine cases of concern regarding how the presidential election was conducted in several parts of the country.

He also said INEC should take all the time required to ensure that it delivered results that would inspire the people’s confidence and meet time-tested international standards.

Some Nigerians who spoke to the Daily Post expressed disappointment that INEC did not deploy the BVAS as promised.

One of the individuals, Itang Bassey, a resident of the FCT Abuja, said he had lost confidence in the electoral body and doubted his participation in future elections.

”I am yet to recover from the trauma INEC put me into. I must tell you that I am greatly disappointed—not just me but every Nigerian who wants the country to make progress.

“Sincerely speaking, I don’t think I will make myself available for any other future election." "It is finished for me,” he lamented.

Also speaking, Amos Shaibu said, “It is right that Nigerians demand that INEC refund over N400 billion the government gave them." There is no justification to demand such a huge amount to get equipment and fail simultaneously to use it. "I smell a serious conspiracy to favor a particular candidate.”

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has already congratulated Bola Ahmed Tinibu after he was declared president-elect.