The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refuted has refuted claims by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Adamawa State, Aisha Binani, claimed that some of its officials met with Governor Ahmadu Fintiri at night and received a list of the “collation and returning officers” assigned to the election.
To correct the accusation, INEC said in a statement on Thursday that no nighttime meeting, much less the creation of any list of collation and returning officers, took place in the Adamawa government residence.
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The Returning Officer is also the State Collation Officer for the Presidential Election (SCOPE), according to Festus Okoye, the INEC spokesman, who claimed that just one Returning Officer had been selected and retained by the Commission for the governorship election.
Okoye stated that the list of Collation Officers had also been forwarded to the State with every page of the list endorsed by the INEC Chairman, well ahead of the arrival of the National Commissioners.
He dispelled the false impression that Binani had given that the INEC national headquarters had deployed National Commissioners especially with the aim of influencing the results of the supplementary poll and discrediting the REC in Adamawa State.
Okoye noted;
Nothing can be further from the truth. For the record, it has been the standard policy and practice of the Commission to deploy National Commissioners, RECs and other staff from the headquarters or neighbouring states for supplementary or off-cycle elections where doing so is considered necessary.
He added that Adamawa was not targeted for any reason as officials were also deployed to Kebbi, Zamfara, Ogun and other states where supplementary elections were held on Saturday, April 15.
In all other States, the RECs worked cooperatively with the National Commissioners except in Adamawa State for reasons that are now obvious to all.
