INEC Refutes Report Of Allegedly Distorting Governorship Election Result In Abia State

• INEC has debunked reports of allegedly delaying the Abia state Guber elections.

• According to a report, the Returning Officer as alleged that she was being forced to do the wrong thing.

• INEC reacting to the reports, stated that it was simply false.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has debunked the report accusing its Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu of attempting to violate its guidelines and consequently distort the governorship election result in Abia State.

An online news platform (not Ekohotblog), had quoted the Returning Officer as alleging she was being forced to do the wrong thing.

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The INEC Returning Officer In Abia State and Pastor in RCCG, Nnenna Oti, further alleged that Mahmood gave her instruction on the result collation, she, however, insisted that the mandate of the people must stand.

Reacting to the publication, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement said the only communication sent to the State Returning Officer was the commission’s directive suspending further collation of results.

He noted that the report of Mahmood giving another instruction to the Retuning officer is false and members of the public should disregard it.

He said; “The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu never called the Returning Officer to give her a directive. Rather, the Returning Officer wanted the official communication on the Commission’s decision to suspend the collation of results in Abia State. The Chairman then directed that pending the delivery of the hard copies, the soft copies of the Commission’s letter be forwarded immediately to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Enugu State and the Administrative Secretary of Abia State.

“The Returning Officer for Abia State then directed that the contents of the letter be read aloud by the Administrative Secretary in the presence of agents of political parties, observers, the media and security personnel at the Collation Centre.

“This is what is now being mischievously interpreted as a directive to the Returning Officer on some phantom criteria at variance with the approved guidelines. There is nothing like that.

FURTHER READING

• Nasarawa Decides: Obi Council Chairman Arrested With Election Materials

• Bauchi Guber: Elections Delayed As INEC Staff Protest Non-payment Of Transport Allowance

• Benue Decides: Gov Ortom And Wife Eunice Arrive At Polling Unit, Cast Their Votes (Photos)

“In fact, the content of the letter is basically the same as the Commission’s Press Release dated Monday 20th March 2023 which has since been uploaded to the Commission’s social media platforms and is already in the public domain.

“The public should disregard the story as fake news”

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