Heads to roll in INEC over falsified results

Following petitions submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  by the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and  All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) alleging irregularities and inconsistencies in the March 28 National Assembly election in Abia State, INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday summoned Prof. Selina Oko, Abia State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and her team over the alleged manipulation of election result.

A few days ago, the INEC-appointed Returning Officer for Abia North senatorial race, Prof. Ihekweaba Chukwugoziem of Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, had distanced himself from the result released to the Press by some unauthorised INEC officials.

Our source reliably gathered that the INEC boss at the meeting registered his displeasure over the petitions submitted so far to his office and circulating in the media over the conduct of election in the state.

Speaking under condition of anonymity, a senior staff of INEC in Abia, who attended the meeting, said Jega had directed the REC to submit a detailed report on the last election including detailed result.

The source said the request by INEC boss is a signal that any official of the electoral body that had connived with politicians to doctor figures will be disengaged from service immediately.

He said, “my colleagues whose hands are not clean are now  trying to re-doctor the figures to cover up their mess before the final report gets to the INEC boss. At the Ohafia Collation Centre, massive rigging took place as officers were seen changing figures brought from individual polling units. The sad thing is that all these were done in the open with impunity. I feel bad that our organization has staff that are allegedly unprofessional and corrupt, to the extent of allowing snatching of ballot boxes by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agents.

“Anyway, I know Prof Jega  would detect all the anomalies and will not spare the culprits of this undemocratic act”, he said.

According to the source, the bad eggs in INEC office in Abia had on the eve of the election collected money and other gifts from the government officials to allow PDP thugs manipulate the electoral process to favour their candidates.

The INEC official noted that the PPA candidate had the highest  number of votes in most of the polling units and should be declared the legitimate winner of the race.


The INEC official noted that the PPA candidate had the highest  number of votes in most of the polling units and should be declared the legitimate winner of the race.

Speaking to our reporter on telephone, a stalwart of PPA in the state, Chief Okon Emeh, maintained that its party’s candidate won the election.

While urging INEC boss to disregard any report prepared by the REC, he appealed to Jega to send her on compulsory leave to allow an independent body to probe  the election.

SOURCE: Sun