… Reveals Why APC Agents Refuse To Sign Result Sheets
A staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,
Dominic Okenna has told the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Elections Petitions
tribunal in Abuja that there was no official circular that barred the use of
manual accreditation by electoral officers during the last governorship
elections in the State.
Dominic Okenna, who said he served as the Electoral officer for
Onna Local Government Area, said that INEC had a procedure which involves
sending information by circulars from Abuja through the State Resident
Electoral Commissioner, who in turn subsequently passes the circular to all
concerned official.
Okenna dimissed the alleged directive that barred the use of
manual accreditation in the April 11, 2015 elections, saying “we never received
the press statement purportedly sent from INEC Abuja on the use of card
readers,” adding that the statement was merely a press statement, and not an
official circular.
The INEC official, who was appearing before the Justice Sadiq
Umar-Chaired three man panel, faulted an earlier testimony by one of the
petitioner’s witnesses Bishop Samuel Akpan who claimed election never took
place in the area.
He said he was responsible for distribution of materials and
contrary to the testimony of Bishop Samuel Akpan and Patrick Ekpotu, the
materials were distributed in the presence of all parties.
The witness who works as Head of Logistics at INEC intimated the
tribunal that Electoral officers bring results to the head office of INEC
accompanied by the Local Government Collation officers and the results are
presented in full view of everyone present.
He also said that the fact that the results were not signed by
some agents, by INEC regulations, does not invalidate the process and the
result and does not stop INEC from going ahead to announce results.
He explained that it is always the trend by most agents to refuse
signing the documents, once their party had lost in the poll.
During cross examination, he admits that in line with his
responsibility, he visited almost all the 131 polling units in Onna and also
witnessed the collation of results at the Local Government collation center.
The INEC official who said he has been in the services of the
electoral umpire for over 20 years revealed some challenges posed by the card
reader to include slow capturing of voters’ biometrics and the short lifespan
of batteries which ran out rather too quickly in the course of usage despite
being fully energized the previous day.
Okenna also said that there were instances the card readers didn't
work at all and that he mandated two trained staff to handle trouble shooting
situations.
Comments
Post a Comment