The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday addressed reports of an ongoing plot to rig the widely anticipated March 28 election for the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) as alleged by the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the electoral body, the reports that it had hatched plots to the rig tomorrow’s presidential and National Assembly polls for the All Progressives Congress (APC) are baseless. However, the commission pledged that the polls will be free, fair and credible.
To ensure that voting begins early tomorrow, the electoral commission yesterday moved sensitive election materials such as ballot papers to the local councils, which in turn will move them to the wards today. Tomorrow, the materials will be moved to the polling units and voting points.
Vanguard reports that at the INEC Lagos office yesterday, electoral officers were at hand to collect the materials amid tight security. Groups of mobile policemen were at hand and two armoured personnel carriers were strategically parked in front the commission.
Dismissing the rigging allegations and reacting to a front page advertorial ‘Exposed: How Jega plots to rig election for APC’ in some national newspapers on Wednesday, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Kayode Robert Idowu, said the allegation was baseless.
Idowu said that the advert was placed by a faceless group which cited the constitution of a presidential election result collation committee by the INEC chairman as the basis for its allegation that a plot to rig the election has been hatched.
He said ‘’INEC would not have bothered to respond to such patently cynical and malicious allegation, but for the fact that the elections are days away and otherwise respectable national newspapers have lent themselves to be used as platforms to disseminate such falsehood. Any misinformation, – even as baseless as in this particular case – unless corrected could mislead innocent or undiscerning members of the public and cause unnecessary apprehension about the credibility of the electoral process.’’
He said: ‘’The Commission affirms that the allegation to manipulate or rig the election is completely false and baseless. The Chairman of the Commission as the Chief Electoral Commissioner of Nigeria and the Returning Officer of the presidential election has statutory and legal powers to constitute administrative committee(s) to facilitate the performance of his duties.
“The constitution of an in-house committee to assist in the collation process after the presidential election is purely an administrative arrangement to assist the Chairman. Members of the committee are officials of the Commission. They work as professionals and non-partisan technocrats and have sworn to the oath of neutrality in the execution of their official duties. They are drawn from the Operations, ICT and Legal departments of the Commission as well as the Office of the Chairman. This arrangement is not new and was the same as during the 2011 general elections.
‘’INEC condemns these sinister and unpatriotic attempts to create unnecessary controversies aimed at discrediting the Commission through dissemination of falsehood.
“The Commission assures Nigerians of its commitment and resoluteness to conduct free, fair and credible elections. The Commission will not hesitate to institute legal action, where necessary, to protect its members from malicious and libelous allegations.’’
The INEC’s response comes hours after the PDP raised an allegation of a conspiracy involving the INEC and the opposition party the APC to rig the general elections. VANGUARD
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