INEC Sacks Four Collation Officers Over Alleged Partisanship In Rivers Governorship Election

Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent
National Electoral Commission in Rivers State, Obo Effanga, has
said that four collation officers for the governorship election in
Rivers State who were alleged to be partisan have been removed.

In a statement on Friday, Effanga said: “Our attention have been
drawn to a petition about the list of LGA collation officers for
the governorship election in Rivers State wherein four of the
listed persons were alleged to have partisan inclination.

“We have since updated the list by removing the said persons
whom we had no prior knowledge of their alleged partisanship.

“They said officers were selected from the lists sent to us from
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), headquarters
as lecturers in the University of Port Harcourt, as well as those
other lecturers who attended the training we held for academic
Staff of the University of Port Harcourt.

“We took every reasonable step to ensure that the proposed
collation officers were without any partisanship, even as we
requested each person to disclose any such interest which may not
be known to us.

“We have since briefed the Chairman of INEC on this, following
his request for response by us.”