INEC officer arrested for illegally collating results in Delta

MARCH 30, 2015 : ALLWELL OKPI

A member of staff the Independent National Electoral Commission was arrested on Monday at the commission’s office in Asaba for violating INEC’s rule on collation of results.

The INEC worker, who served as the electoral officer for Ndokwa East Local Government Area, was taken away by policemen in a van after he admitted to collating the results for the local government area against the rule of the commission.

The electoral officer came to the state collation centre at INEC, Asaba,  to present the result of Ndokwa East without the collation officer for the local government, whose job it is to present the result.

When he was queried by the state Collation Officer, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, the electoral officer said the collation officer for the local government did not show up and due to pressure from party agents, he was forced to collate the results alone in the presence of party agents and security operatives.

The state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Anidi Ikowak, who was infuriated by the explanation, declared the results collated by the electoral officer invalid.

The REC said according to INEC’s rule, the electoral officer is not permitted to do the job of the collation officer and faulted the electoral officer for not calling him to report the situation.

Addressing the erring officer, Ikowak said, “There is division of labour in INEC’s activities. The electoral officer cannot stand in the place of the collation officer. If the collation officer did not show up you should have called me and another collation officer would have been nominated from the list of those we have trained. And replacement needs to be approved by me or even the chairman.

“I’m the REC. If this state collation officer did not come, I would have reported to Abuja and another one will be sent. I can’t take up that role, I can only assist. So, the result you have collated is invalid.”

Aluko, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Otuoke, asked the electoral officer to submit the result and write a report on the situation, but noted that it had not been officially accepted.

Immediately, the electoral officer was ushered into a police van and driven off.



Source ; http://www.punchng.com/news/inec-staff-arrested-in-delta/

It's always good to stick to agreement & be a man of your word. Had it been that jonny did not re-contest as promised in 2011, he wouldn't have be in this mess. Now he will go down in history as the first democratically elected seating president to be booted out of office through ballot.

Take heart jonny
Take heart TANoids
Take heart PDP

Please let's be careful with the kind of Information we release. Jega is not stupid

INDEPENDENT National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday announced that elections were held yesterday in 350 polling units across the country, using manual-accreditation only process.

This was even as the commission advised that “election results” making the round shoud be discountenanced, stressing that apart from two states where the collation officers have arrived Abuja, none of the collation officers bearing the results from the other states have arrived Abuja.

National Chairman of the commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, while updating the media on Saturday presidential election, warned against sending “fake and uncertified” election results either on the social media or other platforms, stressing that only results certified by the commission should be released.

Even as an army of journalists kept vigil at the International Conference Center (ICC), Abuja, venue of the national collation center, Jega gave the hint that elections would be released as from today “but when the collation officers arrive and we are ready to start the collation, we shall invite the media and other stakeholders to set up their facilities before we can do so”.

He commended Nigerians for the large turn out for voting, but lamented that in the less than 0.025 per cent of the 150,000 polling stations, where the Card Reader failed to work, the commission has ordered manual-only accreditation.

Providing details of the affected states, the INEC boss stated that Lagos had 90 polling units, Kebbi 16, Adamawa 25, Niger 25, Yobe 37, Borno 8, Jigawa 37, Kano 13, Taraba 116 and 2 polling units in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He stated that prior to taking decisions on these states, directives was given on Saturday for same manual-only accreditation to be conducted in affected some polling stations in Osun, Kebbi, Ekiti, Adamawa, Borno, Jigawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states.

He expressed joy that “elections went on smoothly in substantial number of polling units across the country, including the north east where the commission was able to conduct voting for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states”.

During the question and answer session Prof Jega stated: “The law prohibits people from declaring the results, but people are allowed to share the results they have received from the field. It is only INEC that is supposed to put all these together and make a final declaration. When one begins to put the results together and announced the results, one will run foul of the law.

“The results we use for collation would be used as soon as the Collation Officer bring the original results to us. We have made provisions for the Collation Officers to scan the results and send to us in advance but we shall not announce the results until we see the original results and compare them with what they had sent electronically to us.

“As we speak now, it is only two states that have been collated. Many others are at 90 per cent collation. It is better that we remain here and as they come, we collate the results.

“And as I stated before, we will not commence collation unless stakeholders are adequately informed and until the media are informed. We have demarcated the area and there is ample space for the media to be accommodated.

“Election were not perfect, but we believe we have done well, but we still leave room for improvements. That is why we have observers. What we get from them, will help us to make improvements.

“On the question you asked, oe of the parties said PDP is winning in 23 states. We don’t know the source of their information but we have to be careful about what we announce, we must follow the law. I know that very few states have collated their results. You have to publish election results announced only by the INEC.

“We have received allegations and accusations about supplanting of our trained ad-hoc staff but we are investigating such allegation. But we plead with the complainants to give us the polling station, the ward or better information that will assist us in the investigation. We have the data and it is very easy to cross-check and confirm supplanting.

“I can tell you certainly that the number of failed Card Reader surprised us. That leaves a question mark as to whether untrained people supplanted the trained staff and that is why we are investigating.

“In 2011 we dealt with transporters individually and we had challenges, which was why this year, we decided to deal with the officials of the NURTW which recommended reputable transporters which we used. Inspite of that, we had witnessed serious lapses.

“In the FCT for instance, the transporters, transported the field officers to the RACS but in the morning, they insisted we pay them 100 per cent before they take them to the polling units, inspite of the agreement we had with the NURTW and we have no means of knowing what they can do.

“We are not under any pressure to declare inconclusive election as alleged. Who would be interested in such results?

“I have no information about the Military interfering or working for any political party. The Imo state governor should be asked such a question.

“The recourse to reversal to manual was as a result of the field we got, that the Card Readers were not functioning well. That was why we issued supplementary guidelines to ensure that we capture the failed Card Readers.

“From statistics, we did not have more than 0.025 per cent of failed Card Readers. We deployed over 150,000 and 0.025 is insignificant. But if out of 150,000 Card Readers and only 374 did not work, it is significant achievement but we have avoided the overheating of the process which was why we reviewed the guidelines”.

http://www.championnews.com.ng/presidential-election-expect-results-today-jega/