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

Describing the plan as the product of “unhinged desperation,” the APC National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka, declared that the former Anambra State governor lacks both the legal locus and the logistical capacity to assume the duties of the statutory electoral umpire.

Morka’s scathing assessment comes in reaction to a recent appearance by Obi on a national television, where the NDC candidate unveiled plans for a “dual transmission” system.

Obi had argued that his campaign team and other independent organizations would establish situation rooms to transmit results directly from polling units to verify the official counts uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Speaking on the development in an interview, Morka ridiculed Obi’s assertions, questioning his legal standing to usurp functions constitutionally guaranteed to INEC.

“Peter Obi of the NDC must be a political jester,” Morka stated. “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 pushed back on the feasibility of the plan, noting that Obi lacks both the technical infrastructure and the grassroots party structure required to execute a nationwide parallel collation exercise.

“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 suggested that Obi’s proposal borders on self-delusion, quipping that the opposition candidate might as well declare himself the winner ahead of the poll.

“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 declared.

Beyond the electoral portal controversy, the ruling party scribe criticized Obi’s broader policy proposals, including his comments on petrol subsidy removal, arguing that the opposition candidate has consistently failed to offer coherent alternatives to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic reforms.

According to Morka, opposition leaders like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are struggling to present viable policy offerings that can compete with the current administration’s pragmatism.

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

He added: “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.’”

Morka concluded by noting that he often hesitates to respond to statements from the opposition, as doing so confers unearned credibility on unsubstantiated claims.

“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 noted. “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.” (The Nation)