Mallam Garba Attahir Madami, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in charge of Kwara state, yesterday said the results sheet meant for the state for the presidential and National Assembly elections postponed last week was mistakenly taken to the commission’s office at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. He also said the one meant for Lagos was mistakenly delivered in Kwara while that of Lagos was taken to Nasarawa state.
Madami made the disclosure while addressing party agents at the commencement of distribution of sensitive elections materials from the Ilorin office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to local government areas in the state.It was witnessed by representatives of various security agencies including the Police, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigerian Prison Service, and the media.
“The result sheets for Kwara were found in our FCT office in Abuja and they are going to be sent today. I will be here (CBN) till they bring it. Also the results sheets of Lagos were found here, I have sent it back; that of Lagos was also found in Nasarawa. You can see the reason the election was postponed”, the REC said. He, however, said the commission was expecting to take delivery of the results sheets to be used for rescheduled elections before the end of the Wednesday even as he said the commission has taken delivery of other materials needed for the rescheduled polls.
“The result sheets are not going to be used not until Saturday; but we would get it before then,” he said.He said the commission began the movement of the election materials to various local government areas in the state to ensure that the materials go to the difficult terrain early enough.
“We are starting with the local governments that are far way; we are moving our materials to Baruten, Kaiama, Patigi where there are riverine communities,” he said.
Meanwhile, there was a mild drama at the Central Bank of Nigeria branch in Dugbe, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, after the Form EC8B of the Independent National Electoral Commission meant for Kano State was found in the election material deliveries meant for Oyo.
The form, which is one of the sensitive election materials, is the result sheet for a particular ward within a state. While some journalists were moving round the CBN premises around 5.30pm to monitor the sorting of the materials, a group of INEC officials, including ad hoc ones, suddenly raised an alarm.
“Eh! For Kano… Noted,” they exclaimed, as a woman raised up the form. One of them subsequently took the form to a superior INEC official, who documented it in a register.A senior official of the Commission supervising the sorting was approached to ask how the discovery would be handled. He said, “We will give it to the CBN to return it to Kano State as soon as possible,” the official, who did not disclose his name, said.
Asked if there were other discoveries of such, he said, “For now, that is the only one we have found.” The official added that the sensitive materials would be dispatched to different local government areas of the state as soon as the sorting ends.
