The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega on Monday, refused to cancel the
polls in Rivers state.
He acknowledged receiving a petition from the All Progressive Congress (APC) on Sunday seeking the cancellation of the last Saturday’s election.
Speaking before the results for Rivers state was announced, Jega said: “Sunday morning, I received a petition from APC demanding for the cancellation & rescheduling of elections.
“’I circulated this memo to the Comm. We reviewed it and set up a 3 man Committee to
Rivers and they returned this morning with their observations. There were a number of points as to why the Commission should cancel/reschedule elections.
1. No elections
2. No result sheets
He acknowledged receiving a petition from the All Progressive Congress (APC) on Sunday seeking the cancellation of the last Saturday’s election.
Speaking before the results for Rivers state was announced, Jega said: “Sunday morning, I received a petition from APC demanding for the cancellation & rescheduling of elections.
“’I circulated this memo to the Comm. We reviewed it and set up a 3 man Committee to
Rivers and they returned this morning with their observations. There were a number of points as to why the Commission should cancel/reschedule elections.
1. No elections
2. No result sheets
3. Substitution of officials.
“We cannot establish any cancellation or substitution of results and we sent a list of collation officers to the state. Officials failed to show up to work for several reasons and it is up to the REC to substitute from the pool of officials they have.
“We do not believe the allegations are substantial enough to require the cancellation/rescheduling of the elections in Rivers.
“The decision of the Commission is that we will take the results of the elections in Rivers state.
“We have taken measures to make sure that re-occurrences do not occur in the future.”
Recall that the Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had claimed that no elections were conducted in the state according to what he witnessed.
However, Dame Gesilia Khan, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Rivers state, on
Sunday night said elections held in the 23 local government areas of the state.
Yesterday, he imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Port Harcourt, the state capital, hours after the INEC announced the result of the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
“We cannot establish any cancellation or substitution of results and we sent a list of collation officers to the state. Officials failed to show up to work for several reasons and it is up to the REC to substitute from the pool of officials they have.
“We do not believe the allegations are substantial enough to require the cancellation/rescheduling of the elections in Rivers.
“The decision of the Commission is that we will take the results of the elections in Rivers state.
“We have taken measures to make sure that re-occurrences do not occur in the future.”
Recall that the Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had claimed that no elections were conducted in the state according to what he witnessed.
However, Dame Gesilia Khan, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Rivers state, on
Sunday night said elections held in the 23 local government areas of the state.
Yesterday, he imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Port Harcourt, the state capital, hours after the INEC announced the result of the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
APC has a clear lead in this elections. Reminds me of 2011. How time flies
ReplyDeleteExactly. Buhari to Aso Rock!
DeleteINEC should investigate the Kano result where children underaged were allowed to vote. This is crazy.
ReplyDelete