Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) demand to redeploy Anugbum Onuoha, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Edo, ahead of Saturday’s Governorship election.
Gatekeeper News reports that last week, Tony Aziegbemi, Edo PDP chairman, requested Onuoha’s redeployment due to his ties with Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), citing concerns about the REC’s ability to conduct a free and fair election.
However, Wike revealed that Onuoha is his first cousin and has been Edo REC for over a year. The minister questioned the PDP’s sudden demand for Onuoha’s redeployment, adding that Governor Godwin Obaseki had approached him to support the PDP candidate.
In response, Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, stated that Onuoha will not be redeployed and asked the PDP to focus on the voting process instead of the Edo REC office.
“The resident electoral commissioner for Edo state will not be redeployed. The governorship election will be conducted on 21st September 2024 in 4,519 polling units, not in the REC’s office,” he told Punch News.
“In the same manner, polling unit results will be declared by the respective presiding officers after the voting, ballot sorting and counting processes, in the presence of accredited party agents and other stakeholders.
“The PO will also take a picture of the PU result in each polling unit with the bimodal voter accreditation system, and upload same to the INEC result viewing portal.
“This process is not the same as electronic voting or electronic transmission and collation of results.
“The IReV is for transparency purposes. The Nigerian constitution does not yet recognise electronic voting. Copies of the PU results will be given to accredited party agents.
“Thereafter, the various collation stages will be undertaken before the declaration of the final result at the State Collation Centre in Benin city.
“The PDP should, therefore, focus on the process, not on the REC or other officials of the commission.
“The conduct of the election and result collation activity will take place in the open and accredited party agents will witness every step.”
