Akwa Ibom REC denies manipulating presidential, NASS election results

Mr. Mike Igini, the Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner
has denied manipulating the Presidential and National Assembly
election results in the state.

Igini made this known in an interview with the News Agency of
Nigeria in Uyo on Saturday.

He said that the allegation was not true and that the election
was not manipulated.

Igini said that elections were won and lost at the polling
units, saying the REC would not be at the polling units from the
beginning to the close of the polls.

“The allegations are incorrect, we have a total of 2,980 polling
units, I was not in any these polling units from the opening to the
close of the polls.

“I have no vote to give nor will I allow anybody to manipulate
the election process,” Igini said.

He noted that the commission had put in place, anti-rigging
devices to check election malpractices in the state.

Igini explained that the strength of the political parties were
determined on the election day at the polling units.

The REC said that henceforth, no politician would have access to
poll officials in the state.

“No politician will know the level of presiding and collation
officers in the state.

“They can no longer be the ones to supply ad hoc staff that
function in those categories,” Igini said.

The Akwa Ibom REC noted that the era where politicians were
writing results had ended in Akwa Ibom, alleging that politicians
before now carried result sheets to their houses and re-wrote
results.

“What they used to do in time past is to write results but it is
now that they allow people to vote their conscience.

“The era of writing results on behalf of the good people of Akwa
Ibom is gone forever,” Igini said.

Reacting, Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Adviser to
President Buhari on National Assembly Matters, said that there were
several irregularities during the Presidential and National
Assembly elections in the state.

“The results in Akwa Ibom do not in any manner reflect the true
voting and will of the people of the state.

“It was heavily and massively manipulated by the PDP in
collusion with INEC’s permanent and ad hoc staff in the state.

“Throughout the course of the campaign, I try to personally
avoid castigating INEC, I have aligned myself with all the
complains that we as a party made against the Akwa Ibom REC.

“And I have thought that in the course of the elections that he
will display what I thought I knew about him in terms of integrity
but the last elections of February 23, is the lowest low,” Enang
alleged.

(NAN)