INEC says it has no report of claim that Gov Bello is altering results

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that election results from polling units where cases of ballot box-snatching were recorded may be cancelled.

Chairman, INEC Voter Education and Information, Festus Okoye, Saturday said results from volatile polling units could be cancelled depending on reports from the presiding officers in such units.

Reacting to claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello was forcing officials to endorse prefilled results, Okoye said the commission was yet to receive such information from the party.

He said, “If there were areas where ballot box-snatching was reported, the presiding officer is expected to write a report on such incident to the Electoral Officer stating the issues concerned and how they fill into the guidelines.

“The report from the presiding officers from such units will help the commission to determine whether the results from such units will be cancelled outrightly or whether a rerun will be ordered or whether the unit will be awarded a zero score.

“Until such a report is received from the officers on the field, the commission will not make a decision on it.”

“We have some Resident and National Commissioners and other senior staff of the commission on the field. They are doing their job in accordance with the law.

“We are not aware of such an incident (that Bello and INEC were forcing INEC staff to sign prefilled results) and if such an incident is taking place, there will be a report because we have some Resident Electoral Commissioners supervising a cluster of Local Government Areas.”