Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the resident electoral commissioner (REC) in Edo State, Prof Anugbum Onuoha, will not be redeployed ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
Recall that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in Edo State, Tony Aziegbemi, had last Thursday asked INEC to redeploy Onuoha over his ties with Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
Aziegbemi expressed a lack of confidence in the REC’s ability to conduct a free and fair election.
Onuoha had previously served as Commissioner and Special Adviser on Lands, Housing and Survey to Wike when he was governor of Rivers State.
Reacting to Aziegbemi’s comments, Wike had said Onuoha is his first cousin and has been REC in Edo State for over a year.
The FCT Minister wondered why the PDP is demanding for the redeployment of Onuoha just days before the election, adding that he was approached by Godwin Obaseki to support the PDP candidate for the election.
However, in an interview with The PUNCH, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said PDP should focus on the voting process instead of the Edo REC.
“The resident electoral commissioner for Edo State will not be redeployed. The governorship election will be conducted on 21st September, 2024 in 4,519 polling units, not in the REC’s office.
“In the same manner, polling unit results will be declared by the respective presiding officers after the voting, ballot sorting and counting processes, in the presence of accredited party agents and other stakeholders.
“The PO will also take a picture of the PU result in each polling unit with the bimodal voter accreditation system, and upload same to the INEC result viewing portal.
“This process is not the same as electronic voting or electronic transmission and collation of results.
“The IReV is for transparency purposes. The Nigerian Constitution does not yet recognise electronic voting. Copies of the PU results will be given to accredited party agents.
“Thereafter, the various collation stages will be undertaken before the declaration of the final result at the State Collation Centre in Benin city.
“The PDP should, therefore, focus on the process, not on the REC or other officials of the commission.
“The conduct of the election and result collation activity will take place in the open and accredited party agents will witness every step,” Oyekanmi said.
