Obi Has No Legal Authority To Create Parallel IReV — APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected a proposal by the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, to establish an independent result transmission system alongside the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 general elections.

APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, described the proposal as a product of “unhinged desperation”, arguing that Obi lacked the legal authority, technical infrastructure and nationwide party structure to operate a parallel electoral system.

Morka was reacting to Obi’s recent appearance on national television, where the former Anambra State governor said his campaign team and other independent organisations would establish situation rooms to transmit results directly from polling units.

According to Obi, the proposed system would serve as an independent means of verifying results uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing (IReV) portal during the election.

However, Morka questioned Obi’s legal basis for undertaking a function reserved for INEC, the statutory electoral management body.

“Peter Obi of the NDC must be a political jester,” Morka said. “He is a presidential candidate that also wants to be the electoral umpire, a role statutorily reserved to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Has he any locus to do that?”

The APC spokesman also questioned the feasibility of establishing a nationwide parallel result transmission system, noting that it would require significant technical infrastructure and agents across polling units.

“One, he doesn’t have the software, unless he means he is going to create his own software to do that. And if he does that, that will be creating utter confusion. And he doesn’t have the capacity to do that,” Morka said.

“I bet you, Peter Obi will not have agents in all the polling units in this country. He doesn’t. So I don’t know how he’s going to go about it.”

Morka further mocked the proposal, suggesting that Obi could simply declare himself the winner of the 2027 presidential election.

“Mr. Obi shouldn’t just stop at creating a parallel IReV; he might as well go ahead, today, and declare himself winner ahead of the 2027 presidential election. That’s the stuff unhinged desperation is made of,” he said.

The APC spokesman also criticised Obi’s wider policy positions, particularly his comments on petrol subsidy removal, accusing the opposition candidate of failing to present clear alternatives to President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms.

Morka said opposition figures, including Obi and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, were struggling to distinguish their policy proposals from those of the Tinubu administration.

“You see Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, the problem they have right now is that they are struggling to differentiate their policy offering from that of Asiwaju,” he said.

“And they can’t do it easily, because Asiwaju’s plan and his programme is almost ironclad in both pragmatism and value. But these guys are merely speculative.”

Morka also dismissed Obi’s promise to reduce petrol prices, saying the former Anambra governor had failed to clearly explain how he intended to achieve it.

“You know, when he was asked what he meant by that, he couldn’t explain. A lot of things he said in that interview, like his fuel subsidy plan—it’s not understandable. I don’t know anybody who understood what he said. He just said, ‘I’m going to bring the price of petrol down.’”

He added that he sometimes chose not to respond to Obi because doing so could give undue prominence to statements he considered incoherent.

“If I respond to Peter Obi now, I would be injecting sense into his nonsense, because it’s very incoherent in what he says,” Morka said.

“Sometimes, I refrain from responding to these snippets from Peter Obi, because when I do, I will be the one making it look like he is saying something that is worth responding to. Sometimes I just ignore them, because, you know, they don’t make any sense.”