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Amaechi, APC were wrong on result sheets – INEC

THE Independent National Electoral Commission has reacted to the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi’s protest on the non availability of result sheets at his polling units on Saturday.

Amaechi had refused to be accredited in his polling unit during the presidential and National Assembly elections because he could not confirm the availability of the result sheet.

But INEC’s statement issued in Port Harcourt on Sunday by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Gesila Khan, insisted that the commission was not under any obligation to show everybody election result sheets.

Comments

Conscience: There is nothing untoward in what the governor did. He asked a question but no answer was given. If what the REC said in a statement was communicated to Amaechi at the polling unit, he would not have pushed the issue further. Once bitten, twice shy! Amaechi has travelled this road before and he knows the character of the people he is dealing with. Eternal vigilance, they say, is the price of liberty.

Anion: Did Amaechi’s question get to the REC? No. He rather chose to intimidate the corps member at his unit. Result sheet is shown before voting, not before accreditation.

Victor Olowogorioye: What should be noted is the fact that Amaechi was an ‘insider.’ Having worked with members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the past, he knows the party’s rigging strategies and this may have informed his request for the result sheet. Though the request might have made him sound uninformed about the voting process and his limitations, with the INEC’s clarification, he would have realised that the commission was not under any obligation to show the result sheets to voters. Amaechi would have done better by briefing the APC’s agents on measures they would employ to checkmate possible manipulation of results.

Sam: I do not believe Amaechi is an insider. He is the master planner who has surrounded himself with bad boys since his days as a speaker. But there is an individual who knows his strategies and how to handle them. Nyesom Wike knows him and what is required to thwart his strategies. This is the reason Amaechi is crying for sympathy.

Mickykarim: Amaechi is an interested party in an election under his jurisdiction. He is also a top member of his party at both state and national levels. Therefore, he could not have been considered as “everybody.”

The fact that the APC agent sighted and signed the documents at INEC office did not translate into availability of said materials at the polling centre. If INEC officials had provided the result sheet on Amaechi’s demand as evidence of a transparent process, the entire imbroglio would have been averted.

Besides, INEC would have demonstrated good faith in exercising its duty. To refer to and designate Amaechi as “everybody” was a blunder on the part of INEC. What stopped the election officials from showing the result sheet to the governor, considering his position as the chief security officer of the state on a mission to ensure all went well with the election in his domain?

Jimmy: Amaechi needed a little more patience. He went to the polling centre with a wrong mindset. He should have waited till after voting and counting of ballots. Then, he would see where they would record the results.

Apparently, the sheet was with the INEC officials but they chose not to show it to the governor. Amaechi ended up wasting his vote because he was not patient enough.

Gaskiyatruth: The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, promised that investigation would be done to find out what exactly happened in Rivers. It is the outcome of the investigation and Jega’s final statement that one should await, and not what the commissioner has said.

Best Iyke Omorede: Result sheets are sensitive materials used after elections, not before accreditation. You do not even need them during voting. The party agents are present during the counting and counting. So, they are expected to know the results and protest irregularities. What Amaechi did was unbecoming of his status as a party chieftain and governor. He has actually heightened the tension in the state.

As a responsible citizen, he should have allowed himself to be accredited and then proceed to vote peacefully while waiting for how they would record the results. The alarm should have been better raised by the party agent after counting.

– punchng.com