The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been indicted by a coalition of domestic ob­servers and Civil Society Or­ganisations (CSOs) that were accredited to monitor the rerun governorship election in Bayelsa State on Saturday.

The leader of the coalition and Director-General, Centre for Credible Leadership and Citi­zens Awareness, Gabriel Nwam­bu, said on Saturday that the group observed some lapses on Friday, describing the situation as unhealthy.

Nwambu, who spoke when the coalition addressed a press con­ference at the NUJ Press Cen­tre, Yenagoa, alleged that some INEC collation officers were compromised by the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) with N300,000 bribe.

He argued that the commis­sion had through its actions and inactions paved the way for des­perate politicians to thwart its efforts at conducting a credible Bayelsa rerun.

He appealed to INEC and se­curity agencies to be alive to their responsibilities, stressing that the coalition was worried over what he termed “some fundamental issues that have erupted in the Bayelsa election rerun that call for urgent attention.”

“We learnt that some of them have collected N300,000 and have swapped the original result sheets with the fake ones. And they released the original sheets to somedisgruntled politicians.

“The essence of this is to doc­tor andeffect election results and find a wayof ensuring that the results do not gets to general collation center.

“The registration of civil soci­ety organisations is basically to observethe degree of compli­ance by INEC, politicians and their supporters. Thatis why observer groups are purely apo­litical and purely neutral.

“I want to state very clearly that the essence of history is to learn from the past. And to miti­gate and prevent the occurrence of sad events. Yesterday (Fri­day), we were at the waterfront, trying to get our chattered boats for our onward movement to Southern Ijaw.

“We were also amazed that some INEC officials were also there even earlier than us.

They were there from6 am to 6 pm with sensitive materials for the election in Southern Ijaw but they could not get speed boats to take them there.

“We feel that this is odd be­cause it isexpected that sensi­tive materials should have got­ten to their destinations earlier because of the difficult terrain.

“The terrain is difficult and most of the officials from Abu­ja and other places in Nigeria are not used to some of these areas.“

And they stayed for a whole day dedicated to their work but at the end of the day could not get speed boats. On further inquiry, we discovered INEC had contracted someone to get boats for them.

“We are addressing this con­ference because today (Satur­day), we received another in­formation that while materials are being moved to their des­tinations, as we speak to you, snatching of ballot boxes and other sensitive materials have commenced”, Nwambu said.

Efforts to get the comment of INEC’sofficer in charge of pub­licity and voter education in the Bayelsa officeproved abortive as he refused to answer calls to his mobile phone at press time.