INEC destroying electoral evidence in A’Ibom poll – APC

By Eniola Akinkuotu

The All Progressives Congress has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of burning ballot papers and other sensitive materials used in the Akwa Ibom governorship election in order to protect the ‘stolen’ victory of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this at a press conference in Lagos on Monday.

The APC spokesperson, while displaying pictures of destroyed materials, noted that some materials were set ablaze while others were immersed in water.

Mohammed said such materials were supposed to have been preserved but were destroyed in order to thwart the APC’s case at the Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

He said INEC’s hands were not clean and that was why the commission opposed the APC’s prayer to inspect the materials.

“The Department of State Service recently invited the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Austin Okojie, and some other officials working under him to help in their investigation into the discovery that the commission had destroyed and attempted to destroy evidence in election petitions before the state election petitions tribunals by shredding ballot papers, immersing them in water, mixing them all up and stuffing them in jute bags which are then left out in the open at the mercy of the elements.

 “This evidence was made available to the DSS, which then launched an investigation to determine those responsible for the criminal acts. The state of the electoral materials discovered in the course of the forensic examination ordered by the tribunal was so bad that we now know why INEC, in concert with the PDP, did everything to stop the forensic examination of the ballot papers.”

The APC spokesman said INEC disobeyed three valid orders of the tribunal authorising the governorship candidate of the APC, Umuna Umana, to conduct a forensic examination.

Mohammed said after INEC discovered that the APC had taken photographs of ballot papers from Itu, Ibesikpo, Ika and Uruan local government areas that showed the twisted and mangled state of the election materials, the commission stopped the party from proceeding to other local government areas.

He said the PDP was trying to cover its tracks and that was why it was engaged in an orchestrated campaign of misinformation on the proceedings.

Reacting to the search of the Akwa Ibom Government House by the DSS, Mohammed said the APC had no hand in it and warned the PDP to stop accusing his party for the activities of security agencies.

Culled from Punch newspaper

A’Ibom: Tribunal orders PDP to remove bags containing ‘fraudulent’ forms from court premises

By Nse Peter

The Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja, Thursday, asked the Peoples Democratic Party to immediately remove from the court registry seven bags containing Incident Form the party brought to the tribunal, since they have failed to tender them as exhibit before the tribunal.

The tribunal said there was no space in its registry to keep the bags. The order came just as INEC abandoned its defence at the tribunal after calling only four witnesses.

The bags containing the incident forms were brought to the election tribunal on September 10, 2015 as part of the respondents’ evidences to sustain their argument that governorship election took place in Akwa Ibom State, and that Udom Emmanuel of PDP won the election. But PDP surprisingly failed to tender them as exhibits before the tribunal.

Think Akwa Ibom!gathered that hundreds of thousands of incident forms were manufactured by the corrupt INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Austin Okojie after the April 11, 2015 Akwa Ibom governorship election to cover up for the massive difference between the total number of accredited voters as recorded by the Card Reader and the fraudulent votes that was declared.

The tribunal has adjourned to October 8, 2015 for the adoption of written addresses.

Meanwhile, submission of written addresses begins on Monday, September 21, 2015. The respondents have seven days, while the petitioners have five days to submit written addresses to the tribunal.

INEC staff disowns card reader at Akwa Ibom tribunal, says they are still uploading records of accreditation

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) opened her defence at the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 by calling 2 witnesses to testify on the conduct of the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State. INEC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State were joined as the 3rd and 4th Respondents in the petition, respectively.

Lawyer to the Commission, Mr. Alex Ejesieme called his first witness, Mr. Pius Nwankwo, the head of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Department of INEC in Akwa Ibom State. Nwankwo who is the defence witness (DW24) was led in evidence in chief by Mr. Ejesieme to adopt his earlier statement on oath dated 25th May, 2015. While being led to give evidence in support of the Respondents by Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN, counsel to the 1st Respondent, governor Udom Emmanuel, he stated that his responsibility during the governorship election included oversight on the Card Reader.
In what appears like a deliberate attempt to discredit the position of the national leadership of INEC on the use of Card Reader for the April 11, 2015 governorship elections in the country, Mr. Nwankwo told the Justice Umar-led panel that the Card Reader malfunctioned in most of the polling units in the state. On the challenges of the Card Reader, he stated that there where three problems that affected the use of the Card Reader. Firstly, he stated that the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) has internal micro chips where particulars of voters are stored and also has an antenna that communicates with the Card Reader. According to him, if the PVC is manhandled it affects the Card Reader and that will make it not readable. Secondly, he stated that human error equally affected the Card Reader. The witness while trying to justify his attack on the Card Reader stated that the Assistant Presiding Officers (APO) whose duty was to handle the Card Readers were not skillful because they were trained for just one day. Thirdly, he stated that the Card Reader itself may not function if there is no Internet. He concluded by saying that although such problems arose during the presidential election, INEC failed to address same before the governorship election.
The climax of Mr. Pius Nwankwo's testimony was when he stated that the uploading of results of accredited voters from the Card Reader to the master server at the INEC head office in Abuja was a continuous process. He stunned the Tribunal when he declared that the uploading of information on accreditation was still ongoing and that as at 27th April, 2015 when the Petitioners obtained the certified true copy of the polling unit by polling unit report of accredited voters from the Commission's head office in Abuja that uploading had not ended and that the head office unilaterally shut down the server 6 or 7 weeks after the election when uploading had not been completed. However, he did not provide any particulars of latest figures regarding accredited voters during the election.
However, during cross examination by the counsel to the Petitioners, Mr. Dayo Akinlaja, SAN, the witness was asked if he served as the Electoral Officer for Mkpat Enin Local Government Area which he said no. At this point, Mr. Akinlaja asked him to take a look at the heading of his statement on oath and read it. Mr. Nwankwo delayed for a while but upon reading it, the heading of his statement read: "Statement of the Electoral Officer of Mkpat Enin LGA". This threw the court into laughter. Asked if he was aware that the case of INEC before the Tribunal as contained in paragraph 11 of their Reply to the petition is that "there was no sustained malfunctioning of the Card Reader in Akwa Ibom State" he said that he was not aware. This again evoked laughter in the Tribunal.
Not done, Mr. Akinlaja referred the witness to paragraph 9 of his statement on oath where he had stated that the Card Reader is electronically linked to the INEC head office in Abuja and not Uyo and asked him if he still stood by that position. The witness in reply exclaimed; "I am tensed up here". His reply caused another round of laughter in the Tribunal. Mr. Akinlaja ended his cross examination by asking him if he was aware that the Card Reader has a dashboard containing 6 icons relating to the election. The witness kept quiet for a while which prompted Mr. Akinlaja to asked that he be shown an exhibit, the INEC Manuel, and then asked him to read three parts of it. The said parts details how information on accreditation is transmitted from the Card Reader to the INEC master server in Abuja which clearly conntradicted the witness testimony on uploading of accreditation information. He was then discharged.
The second and last witness for the day, Mr. Arukwe Kingsley Chibueze, was sworn on oath and led to adopt his statement on oath dated 25th May, 2015. On being examined by Mr. Paul Usoro SAN, the counsel to the 1st Respondent, he said that he acted as the Electoral Officer (EO) for Ikot Abasi Local Government Area and also monitored the conduct of election in the area which he said was very free and fair except for issue of malfunctioning of the Card Reader. He further stated that there are 71 polling units in Ikot Abasi and that in most of the units there was complete failure of the Card Reader. He went further to tell the Tribunal that INEC only trained 2 persons to attend to cases of malfunctioning of Card Reader in Ikot Abasi which according to him was not enough for the 71 polling units in the area. He denied the testimony earlier given at the Tribunal by the Petitioners Witness no. 10 that there was neither election nor collation in the local government.
On the press statement issued by the Secretary of INEC, Mrs. Augusta C. Ogakwu, on 2nd April, 2015 which had been admitted and marked as exhibit 322 that only Card Reader should be used for the April 11 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections in the country, he denied knowledge of such press statement and insisted that no such press statement was ever addressed to him.
However, during cross examination by the Petitioners counsel, Mr. Solomon Umoh, SAN, the witness was asked whether he was the local government collation officer for Ikot Abasi as the Electoral Officer and he said no. "Will you be surprised to see that no agent of any of the political parties signed Form EC8B (the results for all the Wards) for any of the Wards in Ikot Abasi? Umoh asked him, and he said that no agent signed it. Mr. Umoh also referred the witness to paragraph 12B of his statement on oath where he had said that there was no results for some units because the election in those units was disrupted and asked him to look at unit 2 in Form EC8B which shows that a total of 597 votes was recorded for that unit which is one of the units he said that there was no results because of disruption of election. All the evidence you are giving here are not from your personal knowledge? Mr. Umoh asked, and he said yes. This caused laughter in the Tribunal.
Asked if he can see from Form EC8C which is the local government result that only the PDP and INEC signed same he said yes that it is so. Mr. Umoh then ended his cross examination and the witness was discharged. At this point, counsel to INEC applied that the case be adjourned because their remaining witnesses were not available. The application for adjournment was not opposed by any of the parties.
The case has been adjourned to Wednesday 16th September, 2015 for continuation of hearing.