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Confusion as INEC sensitive materials for Lagos, Kwara, Imo, Kano, Gombe, appear in strange lands

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INEC



There was a mild drama in some states on Wednesday when some sensitive election materials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for Saturday election, were found in states they are not meant for.

At the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) branch in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, INEC Form EC 8B meant for Kano State was found among the materials in Oyo state.

In Imo state, some result sheets for the presidential and National Assembly elections meant for the State were also found missing by INEC. The result sheets were subsequently discovered to be in Gombe and Ondo states, while some results sheets meant for Gombe State were found in Imo State.

In a related development, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kwara State, Mallam Attahiru Madami, said that the result sheets meant for the state were mistakenly taken to Abuja.

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Similarly, he said some meant for Lagos were mistakenly delivered in Kwara. According to him, some of Lagos result sheets were also taken to Nasarawa State.

The missing results sheets, as well as the ones that were mixed up across different states, came to the fore when stakeholders examined sensitive electoral materials.

Those invited to verify the electoral materials included political parties, civil society organisations, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, security agencies as well as election monitoring groups.

It was also learnt that when some materials meant for Imo state were discovered to be missing, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Francis Ezeonu, made some telephone calls and discovered that the missing materials were in Gombe and Akure.

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Necessary arrangements were said to have been put in place to retrieve the materials and also to send the Gombe result sheets to their appropriate location.

Chairman of IPAC in Imo State, Ben Duru, who confirmed the development said, “The result sheets were packed in cartons and when one carton was opened, it was found to belong to Gombe. One or two wards in Aboh Mbaise were also found to be missing which were confirmed to have been packed for Gombe. The REC quickly contacted and planned how to return the result sheets and how we would also receive our own.”

Duru dismissed insinuations from some political parties that the integrity of the electoral materials may have been compromised.

He said during the verification that lasted till 9pm on Tuesday, all the materials were found to be intact.

“We verified the materials that had been despatched to the RACs and retrieved. We verified them and they were okay. Nobody touched anyone. Thank God, some of the materials had not got to the Local Governments Areas before the elections were put off,” Duru added.

INEC REC in Kwara state, Madami also disclosed that “The result sheets of Lagos were found here. I have sent them back. Those of Lagos were also found in Nasarawa. You can see the reason why the elections were postponed.”

Madami stated this while addressing party agents at the commencement of distribution of sensitive elections materials from the Ilorin office of the CBN to the sixteen local government areas.

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