₦airaland Forum

One_Naira: Benin republic is now yorubaland. see public stealing in full daylight. tufiakwa

Anyway, I noticed not one person bothered to ask what offense did he do? what crimes did he do? it's okay for a man t be arrested and jailed because he spoke against una desiire. SMH. Goodluxk Asari abeg.

Nonnyz: -Noted then!

"Apparent coincidence"! This, most times occur without our consent nor permission.
They are those "Wills", we mortals can't determine.

Do you mean to tell me that the Minister under imminent threat to her life, has no discretion to
purchase that which shall be for the protection of her life in the PPA?
What is indiscretion about purchasing a bullet proof car to safe guard her life from a bunch of "cruel retrograde"...

Orlando Owoh: Well, I don't have much to say about her but her boss; we shall meet at the poll in 2015.

tobnical: Nigeria: Our Story On Anambra Election - Prof. Jega

As you are no doubt aware, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the Anambra governorship election. In preparing for that election, INEC was determined to make it the best election that we conducted so far. And we prepared for that election adequately more than we have done in preparing for previous elections.

The elections were conducted. There were many matters arising in the conduct of the election, and there is no doubt that INEC's operation performance in that election has not met the expectations of Nigerians to be the best election ever conducted by INEC. We regret shattering the expectations of Nigerians. But we did our best under very difficult circumstance to have prepared credible elections.

Nigerians are also no doubt aware that the Returning Officer, when announcing the result for that election declared it inconclusive and mentioned the need to do the supplementary elections. Following the conduct of that election, we received complaints from candidates, from political parties and many other Nigerians raising issues with the conduct of the election. Some called for outright cancellation of the election, making arguments as to why the election must be cancelled.

Why INEC can't cancel the election

We had a meeting with all the field, the senior level field officers who participated in that election. We reviewed the conduct of that election; we received information about what was done right, lapses about the conduct of the election and the commission met today (on Friday) and took the following decisions with regards to the next line of action.

We regret that in spite of our intention, the Anambra election has not turned out to be the best election that the commission has conducted so far. We regret the challenges that we faced in the conduct for that election, but in our assessment there is no other decision that we, as the commission, can take other than the position of the Returning Officer to conduct a supplementary election in those areas where the results were cancelled before the final returning were made.

We examined all the accusation and the allegations that were made and we came to the conclusion that in spite of minor challenges, unfortunate challenges in the field, there is no substantial evidence to support the outright cancellation of the process. We believed that although the Anambra election was not the best election as we wished, there was substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and that a substantial majority of the allegations that have been made cannot be substantiated. Therefore, we have decided that the supplementary election will hold in Anambra State on Saturday November 30th, 2013.

There is no doubt that there was the challenge of late commencement of election; there was no doubt that this late commencement in many polling units was accounted by delay from election officials, there was no doubt that some polling units materials arrived late, but where it became necessary to adjust the time of the election and time for accreditation, we have done so and elections have taken place peacefully and successfully.

Why some names were missing in voters register

There were a lot of allegations by either party or candidate with regards to the voters register. I want to say that we have investigated and the major allegation being made, which was by the register that INEC gave to political parties 30 days before the election, was different from the register that we gave on the day of the stakeholder meeting a few days to the election was different. This is not correct.

We have reviewed the register and we are satisfied by this review that the register we gave 30 days before the election and the register we gave in the stakeholders meeting was the same and the only difference was the age, which we explained to the stakeholders and none of the stakeholders complained about. They understood our explanation and they were satisfied with it, and there was no challenge to that. So, to now come and start talking about challenges with the register and particularly to accuse INEC about changing the register, frankly is not being fair to INEC.

And at this point, anybody or any party has evidence of discrepancy or variance in the two registers that we have given them, then of course they should come out and prove it. As far as we are concerned, the only difference to the two registers was the correction of the age and this was mentioned to the stakeholders and they accepted it and therefore the register we conducted election with, except the age, was the register that was given to the stakeholders 30 days before the election.

INEC didn't disenfranchise anyone

There were also allegations of disenfranchisement. This is regrettable, given the energy and attention that INEC had deployed in the cleaning up of the register and in trying to make the register much more credible, than the register which we conducted the 2011 elections. I want to remind us that before the Anambra elections, the commission met with the chairmen of all the registered political parties and their secretaries, who came along with the chairman of Anambra State of the branches of their parties.

We briefed them adequately about the improvements we had made to the register; we told them how the number of total registered voters came down from about 1.8 to about 1.7 million because we had done our best to eliminate all multiple registrations. We also told them about the efforts we were making before the 2015 general elections to make sure that nationwide addendum register was eliminated in the conduct of the election. And we briefed them about the efforts we were making to make sure that when the Anambra election came, there would be no use of the addendum register.

We briefed them about how, in Anambra state before the conduct of the election, continuous voter registration, with the main purpose of updating the register by allowing those who have reach 18 years since the conduct of the last registration, and we also informed them how we were going to use the continuous voter registration to address the issue of addendum register.

For example, we briefed about how anybody who is not on the electronic register, and who voted during the 2011 elections, with their names on the addendum register, should use the opportunity of the continuous voter registration to have their names captured and put in the electronic register.

Before we did the continuous voter registration in Anambra State, we did massive campaign, we even displayed the electronic register that was used in 2011 election, so that people could see if their names were not in that register could use the voter registration to have their names and details captured and put in the register.

So I can say that from our own assessment from this allegation of disenfranchisement, a substantial majority, if not those that were said to have gone to the polling unit with their voters card and did not find their names on the register, in all likelihood, even if not all of them, must have either been people who have done multiple registrations or were people who did not take advantage of the continuous voter registration to have their names in the electronic register.

The challenge is for political parties to marshal their evidences or to prove that there were actually people who have their names on the electronic register, which is people outside of the list of those who have done multiple registration, or on the addendum register, who were not initially a priori on the voters register.

No evidence has been provided to us, as I speak to you by any of the political parties and therefore the question or the issue of the disenfranchisement cannot be used to question or to cancel the election as said by the political parties.

There were complaints in some polling units about some candidates who have gone to the polling units or some notable Nigerians who have gone to the polling unit and with their voters card and claimed to have been disenfranchised and were not allowed to vote.

And I need to clarify on this. The electoral Act is very clear and our guideline is very clear that if you present yourself at a polling unit, you must first of all present your card, and your name will be checked in the register.

If your name is not on the register, you will not be allowed to vote. Our electoral officials were trained on this and they clearly complied with the training manuals and legal provisions by ensuring that only people whose names are found on the register are allowed to vote.

A case of one of the candidates who said his name was not on the voters register, we have done some checking, and our investigation has shown that he was on manual register, not on the electronic register. And in all likelihood, that candidate, since we used electronic register in the election, that candidate did not utilised the continuous voters registration opportunity so as to be on the electronic register.

Question about APC petition to INEC

With regards to the claims by APC, yes we have received their claims yesterday and I have gone through it. Almost all the complaints were repetition of the allegations made by the APC candidate, which we have replied. So there is nothing new in it.

atlwireles: Which whiteman introduced Ogogoro to the Ijaw or any tribe in coastal areas of the Nigerdelta The raffia trees all over the Nigerdelta were brought here by the white man Some of you need to hush.

patriotic007: hypocrisy is a desease,....I see some people saying they weep for Nigeria,....they did not weep when 16 billion dollars was wasted on power and no progress,they did not weep when billions was lost in aviation and our airports were like motor parks,...but they start weeping when we are begining to see light at the end of the tunnel in the power,avaition,transport sectors of this country,....GEJ carry on,...Oduah carry on joor at least i can see a diffrence in the aviation sector no matter how small it is

patriotic007: hypocrisy is a desease,....I see some people saying they weep for Nigeria,....they did not weep when 16 billion dollars was wasted on power and no progress,they did not weep when billions was lost in aviation and our airports were like motor parks,...but they start weeping when we are begining to see light at the end of the tunnel in the power,avaition,transport sectors of this country,....GEJ carry on,...Oduah carry on joor at least i can see a diffrence in the aviation sector no matter how small it is

one.east3:
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday virtually accused Imo Governor, Rochas Okorocha of importing fake Election Observers to Anambra State. The National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega made this known while addressing a news conference in Abuja. Jega also fixed November 30, for the conduct of supplementary governorship

election in Anambra State.

About 48hrs to the Anambra Governorship election, the Imo State Police Command had arrested 181 persons suspected to be fake election observers going to Anambra State for the Governorship election held on Saturday, 16 November 2013.

Commenting , on the arrest of some APC members who claimed to be observers for the polls, Jega said, “We were very strict as we accredited only those who applied within the time frame. In previous elections we were very thorough as we had to ask for the photographs of the applicants. For the Anambra State election, given the complaints we had received we insisted that the would-be monitors must be in Awka to get their accreditation.

“We even arrested somebody that was trying to impersonate another person. He is with the police and would soon be prosecuted. It was that thorough and the accreditation that we did aided the arrest of fake observers from Osun State.”

According to Jega, the Osun State delegation of observers forged their documents. “They did not come to Awka to collect their accreditation; rather they camped in Owerri. Some of them have been arraigned before a Magistrate Court” he said.

He accused the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, of Imo State of attempting to take over the prosecution of these people.

Elombah.com learnt that Gov Rochas Okorocha acting for ACN chieftains in Lagos has already arranged bail for the fake observers.

Parading the suspects at the police command headquarters in Owerri, the state capital, last week the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mohammed Katsina said the suspects were arrested at Disney Hotel along Onitsha in Owerri after getting an intelligence report from strategic partners that there are some strange faces that entered the state in large number.

Mr Katsina said preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects who claim to be INEC accredited election observers of Equity and Justice Organisation all came in from Osun state but had to rest in Imo state before moving to Anambra state for the election on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the leader of the group, Mr Waheed Lawal claimed during interrogations that “INEC accredited their organization to observe elections in 13 local government areas in Anambra state”.

Items recovered from the group are[b] 2 pump action guns, valid voter’s registration card of an Anambra indigene[b] and 181 identity cards of Equity and Justice Election Observer Organization.

The arrest of the fake observers in Owerri, the Imo State capital, had generated diverse reactions in the polity as major players in the Anambra State governorship election exchanged brickbats, allegations and counter-accusations.

While the Imo State police command insisted the arrested 180 persons in Owerri with “voter cards, INEC Identity Cards and Independent Observer Identity Cards were thugs having in their possession "two pump-action rifles, live ammunition, 15 buses and other incriminating materials", a statement signed by the Osun State Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the APC, Kunle Oyatomi, contended that the young men arrested were members of the Justice and Equity Organisation, duly accredited by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) as observers in the governorship election in Anambra State.

Oyatomi said that what was found on the arrested young men were not voter cards but INEC’s identification tags as observers of the election; and that the exhibits displayed to reporters by the police showed only the ribbons holding the observers’ tags, and not voter cards.

He also described as untrue the allegation that Governor Rauf Aregbesola was funding the electioneering activities of the APC governorship candidate in the Anambra gubernatorial election, Dr. Chris Ngige, saying “It is important to find proof from the accusers. People hallucinating cannot just engage a serious-minded political party on trivial issues.”

He explained further: “The young men were not found with APC ID Cards. Imo police command was being mischievous by claiming that the youths were APC thugs on their way to disrupt the governorship election.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also joined the fray, insisting that the APC flooded Anambra State with over 4,000 thugs, and that the 180 youths arrested were just a fraction of those already sent to the state.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP said the arrest of 180 heavily armed political thugs from APC-controlled Imo State ready to be deployed to Anambra, had exposed the APC’s plot to cause mayhem and unleash violence during the election.

ifechez: Yoruba pikin like you. face ur mud house with corrugated zinc roofs infested region biko.

biafranqueen: Ok now it's PDP not Peter Obi This election really brought down the credibility of APC if they even had any Well good thing they are throwing in the towel the Imo state saga is not really favoring them. The whole campaign has been a waste of Tinubu money

tonychristopher: that's fallacy of hasty generaLizations....my sister married there they see themselves as igbo and my neighbour is from there he is been called Omo igbo by landlord....so what do you gain lying....maybe you hang out with confused fellows

its like arguing that the aworis and okuns ain't yoruba...that's a travesty ....say the truth once....the difference is the same difference between isoko and urhobo or Benin and ishan or croc and alligator.


the war is over....have you Googled delta state website recently to see how local governments there are classified by tribes...pls do. ignorance is a disease... amu oke

the warrior72: Useless women, they will die for nothing, I don't know how much ngige gave them that they are risking they life

revolt: you can never understand!! The relationship btw yorubas and itsekiris is even more political than traditional. For a start you don't even bear same names, neither do u share mother tongue etc itsekiris r closer to benin sef. Anyways back to our FEW identity crises ridden anioma fols, we speak relatively same dialect, share same culture and ancestry, even same persecution, but still deny their identity. All These was because of the civil war persecutions they faced!! But the wars ended long time ago. They're still hoping to be accepted by their neigbours with the continous denial. Its funny they actually try so hard not to speak their language when they're with oda deltans so as not to expose their igboness. Well igbos generaLly are individualistic ppl so we really don't care if they deny or not but for sure we remain passive to their political remonstrations. If they require our support and ask wed come to their aide. The anioma issue is a dream cos there's no way they'll create it without cutting anambra too, whch ofcos u knw the EasT deserves anoda state. I don't even how u reduce ur nmba sentimentallly in a democracy and expect to hve an advantage!! Na wa o

adconline: Amaechi should ask his attorney general to sue if Rivers is short-changed. Tinubu did it against OBJ. Govs sued FG against onshore offshore dichotomy

ujoinme: what do you think is the purpose of the FEC meetings? do you think its only to share and recieve checks? That is the venue in which all the revenue profiles, receipts and all are discused and disclosed. Is Amaechi not part of the FEC? stop propagating lies to cover for this insincere governor.