Paul Ibe, media aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has called on voters in Osun State to maintain vigilance as the collation of results continues following Saturday’s governorship election. In a statement posted on X, Ibe alleged that the administration of President Bola Tinubu, working through the All Progressives Congress (APC) and in concert with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), may attempt to manipulate the outcome while the electorate rests.
Ibe warned that the temporary suspension of result uploads to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) signals potential irregularities. “Osun people, you have to be vigilant. Indeed, you have to keep the vigil,” he wrote. “There’s no guarantee that while you sleep, the Tinubu-led APC administration working in cahoots with INEC will not subvert the will of the people by changing the results. The pausing of the uploading of results on the IREV is indicative that they’re up to something crooked. It happened in 2023. To the urban bandits, ‘all is fair in politics.’”
The reference to 2023 alludes to controversies surrounding the presidential election that year, during which delays in IREV uploads fueled widespread distrust in the electoral process. Ibe urged citizens to monitor collation centers actively until final results are declared, framing sustained public oversight as the primary safeguard against result alteration.
INEC has not issued an official response to the specific allegation regarding the IREV pause during the current Osun collation. The commission typically attributes technical interruptions to connectivity or system overload, though opposition figures frequently interpret such gaps as deliberate obstruction.
The Osun governorship contest pits the incumbent, Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the APC’s candidate in a state where electoral outcomes have historically been tightly contested and legally disputed. Adeleke’s 2022 victory was upheld by the Supreme Court after prolonged litigation, establishing a precedent for post-election judicial scrutiny.
Civil society observers have echoed the call for transparency, emphasizing that real-time result publication on IREV remains the most effective deterrent against manipulation at the collation stage. They note that any unexplained interruption in data flow erodes public confidence and creates space for disputes that often end in protracted court battles.
As collation proceeds, the focus shifts to whether INEC will maintain continuous IREV updates and whether party agents and citizens can sustain the pressure for accountability. The credibility of the final declaration will depend less on the speed of announcement than on the verifiability of each step leading to it.
