No Evidence Of Electoral Fraud In River State – Jega

The chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has
said there was no evidence of
electoral fraud Rivers State before
the commision.
He also said the commission lacked
the power to cancel results of
elections after they had been
announced.
The commission’s chairman, who
spoke at the Civil Rights Situation
Room held in Abuja stated that the
Commission after getting the
petition of irregularities in Rivers
State sent three national
Commissioners to investigate it.
According to him, the reports
submitted by the team did show any
irregularities in the election.
“We have no power to cancel
elections results once returns have
been made. On the petition against
election irregularities in Rivers
State, the commission sent three
national commissioners to the state
to investigate it and found no
irregularities in the election in the
report. Some people don’t want
elections to hold, they are the ones
calling for cancellation.
“We investigate the allegation of
fake result sheets in Rivers and our
reports showed that there was
nothing like that,” he stated.
While answering question on
whether he would accept the offer,
if he is re-appointed as INEC boss,
Jega stressed that he would not
accept it as he would want to do
something else with his life.
The INEC boss further stated that
the commission was already in
partnership with the police and the
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to
prosecute electoral offenders.
He noted that one offender had
already been prosecuted in
Adamawa state by being sentenced
to six months imprisonment for
being in illegal possession of
permanent voter cards.
He, however, called on anyone with
evidence as it related to electoral
offences to bring such to the
commission, with a promise that
such would be investigated and
consequently tried in court.
On the planned supplementary
elections in Abia State, Jega said
that the elections would hold only in
the wards where election was
cancelled and not in the entire three
local government areas.
Jega further revealed about 20,000
permanent voters card were not
produced before the election was
conducted because the producer
was arrested by the police over the
allegation that he gave the password
to a political party.
“Evidently, some people did not
want us to use the card reader
machine. That was why we allowed
manual election in some few places
where the card reader did not
function well during the presidential
election.
“Some people had already said that
we deliberately deployed card
reader machine that would not in
some zones and to prove them
wrong, we instructed that manual
voting should take place in such
places. But some people want to
take the advantage of that.
“But during governorship elections,
we ensured that all the card reader
machines worked. We had earlier
sent warning to all the RECs that
they would be held responsible for
any card reader that did not work
properly,” he stated.
Earlier, the convener of the
Situation Room and Executive
Director of Policy and Legal
Advocacy Centre PLAC, Clement
Nwankwo had on behalf of the Civil
Societies congratulated Jega and
INEC over the success of the
elections.
He, however, noted that Situation
Room had raised concern over
Rivers, Abia and Akwa – Ibom
elections.
He also noted that there were
complaints about some of the State
Resident Electoral Commissioners as
it relates to their relationship with
politicians in their various states.
Source: Leadership