Anambra INEC Impedes APC’s Inspection Of Polling Documents, Asks Staff To Sign Fraudulent Documents

Two days, agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, demanded N2.2 million from them before allowing them to inspect and photocopy electoral documents used in the November 16 Anambra State governorship election.

Today, SaharaReporters learned that INEC officials in Anambra State office were making frantic efforts to invite all presiding and supervisory presiding officers (SPOs) in the election to the state capital to fraudulently complete and sign some vital electoral documents.

“We are being summoned to Awka to complete and sign forms stating that we received electoral materials from local government electoral officers or from supervisory presiding officers as the case may be,” one presiding officer told SaharaReporters.

Our investigation revealed that the form to be filled out and signed is the ballot paper account and verification statement (Form EC40A). Every supervisory presiding officer and presiding officer was supposed to complete the form with such details as serial numbers and the number of used as well as unused ballot papers he or she received for the polls. A source disclosed that, since most of the presiding officers were not trained for the Anambra election, the forms were neither completed nor signed during and after the election. According to this source, the failure has made an audit trail of the ballot papers impossible.

Last week, the chairman of the Anambra State Election Petition tribunal, Justice G.K. Kaigama had ordered INEC to make Forms EC40A, among others, available to APC for inspection and copying. 

Our source in INEC disclosed that the ruling rattled Chukwuemeka Onukogu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Anambra State. Mr. Onukogu, who is a retired professor, reportedly held a marathon meeting with his top staff to discuss ways of getting around the tribunal’s order. “Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu expressed serious worries over the import of the order since the forms are blank,” said our source. “He then directed that all the presiding officers and supervisory presiding officers involved in the election should be recalled to complete and sign the forms.” The source added that the directive is expected to be carried out before the end of this week.

SaharaReporters learned that most of the presiding officers residing in Anambra State were being offered financial inducement to complete and sign the forms.

In a separate development, INEC headquarters has directed the demotion of at least 18 electoral officers in charge of separate local government areas of Anambra State for allegedly compromising their positions during the November 16 governorship election. The officers were demoted from the rank of electoral officer to assistant electoral officers. The rogue electoral officers reportedly pocketed the millions of naira given to them for hiring vehicles to transport electoral materials to the various local governments, electoral wards and polling units.