Osita Chidoka, former Minister of Aviation, has emphasised the importance of accountability for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), citing the recent actions of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) regarding the case of Mmesoma Ejikeme, a candidate accused of forging her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results in 2023.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Chidoka urged INEC to uphold accountability in the same manner as JAMB.

He stressed the need for INEC to restore the credibility and fairness of elections in Nigeria, particularly with regards to the cloud of suspicion surrounding the election of President Bola Tinubu, if their claims of a functioning system are true.

Chidoka, an ally of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023 elections, called on INEC to clarify the meaning of the “technical glitch” that affected the electronic transmission of results during the polls.

As the owner of the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) Centre where Mmesoma took her examination, Chidoka expressed his willingness “to appeal for leniency from JAMB if the candidate admits to the source of her misrepresented results.”

While Mmesoma claimed a score of 362, JAMB maintained that her actual score was 249.

Highlighting two suspicious aspects of the candidate’s online result, Chidoka commended JAMB for robustly defending its integrity.

He urged INEC to follow JAMB’s lead and provide a comprehensive explanation for the “technical glitch” encountered during the presidential election on February 25, 2023.

Chidoka emphasized that “JAMB’s proactive response should serve as a minimum benchmark for government agencies.”

He suggested that universities should examine this incident as a case study, enabling other institutions to learn effective strategies for managing social media and information in the face of relentless attacks.

According to Chidoka, INEC should emulate JAMB’s example.

He called upon the leadership of INEC to act with a sense of responsibility and integrity, thereby sparing President Tinubu unnecessary questions regarding the legitimacy of his election.

He urged INEC to step forward and elucidate the technical issues that impeded the uploading of Form EC8As from polling units nationwide on election day.

He also requested that INEC disclose details regarding the interaction between BVAS sim cards and their servers, as well as share the audit report of their servers during the failed upload, thereby providing transparency to the public.