Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Attahiru Jega yesterday explained why the
agency could not cancel some election results.
Foreign
and local election observers, including civil society organisations (CSOs),
have queried the results of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in
Abia, Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states.
Speaking yesterday in
Abuja at a dialogue session by the Situation Room, Jega justified the reason
his commission could not cancel results from the state as is being
requested. He blamed this on some inadequacies in the Elecoral Act.
Jega
decried the fact that the INEC in Abuja has little control on the state
offices, noting that Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) were given
enormous powers in the Electoral Act.
He
noted that once a Returning officer declares any election result, “whether the
result is false or doctored, there is nothing else we can do about it than to
ask the candidates to go the the tribunal to challenge such result.
“There is nothing in the legal framework
that gives the INEC chairman the power to cancel results from anywhere
following alleged irregularities. We have no power to cancel elections results
once returns have been made.”
He said his commission also lacked
sufficient evidence to support claims of irregularities in Rivers.
“On the petition on irregularities in
Rivers, the commission sent three national commissioners to investigate. Some
people don’t want elections to hold, they are the ones calling for
cancellation. We investigated the allegation of fake result sheets in Rivers,
our reports showed there was nothing like that,” Jega said.
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