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| Resident Electoral Officer (REC), Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Austin Okojie |
By Kazeem Ibrahym
The Akwa Ibom State All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Resident Electoral Officer (REC), Mr. Austin Okojie, of planning to scuttle the inspection of electoral materials as ordered by Justice Adedayo Oyebanji of the National and State Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal sitting in Uyo, the state capital.
Justice Oyebanji, on May 8, granted a prayer by the counsel to the petitioner, Chief Assam Assam (SAN), for the tribunal to grant leave for the inspection of the polling materials to verify the authenticity of 450,0000 votes.
The 450,000 votes were said to have been scored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate in Akwa North West Senatorial District and Governor Godswill Akpabio.
The tribunal also ordered that the inspection be carried out within 10 days in the presence of the respondents or their agents and security agents.
But a chieftain of the APC, Mr. Akanimo Edet, alleged that Okojie had directed 10 Electoral Officers (EOs) in the senatorial district to mix up the senatorial election ballot papers alongside other ballot papers used during the general elections.
Edet said the action was meant to halt the successful inspection of the over 450,000 ballot papers used in the March 28 senatorial poll.
According to him, investigation revealed that efforts by the petitioner, Chief Inibehe Okori, inspect the materials had been undermined by the electoral body on the prompting of Akpabio.
Edet said: “The commissioner had summoned a meeting of the Eos, where he instructed that the senatorial ballot papers should be mixed up with others to make the inspection nearly impossible to cover up the fraud.
“Our Investigation also reveals that there is massive ongoing filling of incidence forms in a bid to make up for the bogus figures declared for Akpabio. This is at variance with the card reader analysis records, which is one of the contentious issues the governor is battling to provide answers to in the tribunal.
“When lawyers to the petitioner went to the electoral commission to facilitate the inspection, as ordered by the tribunal, INEC officials declined to oblige the petitioner the right for inspection. They said the REC and the Head of Operations were not available to approve the inspection. They insisted that the REC who was nowhere to be found must approve the tribunals order.
“The duo making themselves unavailable is part of the conspiracy between the REC and Akpabio to ensure that the inspection does not go unhindered. It is also part of a plot to ensure that the inspection does not take place within the 10 days period allowed by the tribunal. The tribunal has a 180 days lifespan and a total of 35 petitions are before it.”
But Okojie described APC’s allegation as false.
The REC said he had been ill for three days and was in a hospital in Benin, the Edo State capital, for treatment.
He said: “As I am talking with you now, I am in a hospital in Benin. I took ill about three days ago. I have a problem with my health. Which time will I now have to start telling the people to mix up ballot papers to confuse other people?
“That is rubbish. I have not even been able to call any head, nor speak with any electoral officer. I left about three days ago. Even the date for inspection, I did not even know it. It was the legal officer who mentioned it to me a few days ago.
“Then I said if they should go about the inspection, it would take them a long time to go through the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom State. Instead, I asked that all the election materials be brought to the headquarters so that the people could come to one place and inspect the materials. It was a way they could safeguard the idea of time and to ensure that things were done properly. And in these local government areas, we do not have good storage facilities…”
Culled from The Nations newspaper
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