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.”