I’m through with INEC – Jega

•Says no evidence to cancel Rivers poll
From GODWIN TSA, Abuja
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, said yesterday he will quit his post when his tenure ends in June.
Jega said he has plans to do something with his life.
This is even as the INEC boss said there was no evidence of any election irregularities in Rivers State, hence, calls for the cancellation of the results, do not hold water. Chief Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had been issued the Certificate of Return as the governor-elect by the commission.
Jega, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the Civil Rights Situation Room, said INEC had sent three national commissioners to investigate the petition of irregularities in the state and the reports submitted by the team didn’t show any irregularities in the election.
“We have no power to cancel election results once returns have been made. On the petition against election irregularities in Rivers, the commission sent three national commissioners to the state to investigate it. Some people don’t want elections to hold, they are the ones calling for cancellation.
“We investigated the allegation of fake result sheets in Rivers, our reports showed that there was nothing like that”, he stated.
The INEC boss said the commission is partnering the police and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to prosecute electoral offenders, noting that one accused person had already been prosecuted in Adamawa State. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment for illegal possession of Permanent Voters Card (PVC).
Jega, however, called on whoever has evidence as it relates to electoral offences to bring such to the commission, with a promise that such will be investigated and consequently tried in court.
On the re-run in Abia State, Jega said the exercise will hold only in the wards where election was cancelled and not in the entire three local governments.
He disclosed that about 20,000 PVCs were not produced before the election was conducted because the contractor was arrested by the police over the allegation that he gave the password to a political party.
The INEC boss attributed the success achieved in the general elections to the use of technology adding that subsequent elections can be better if the present success is sustained. “Evidently, some people did not want us to use the Card Reader machine. That was why we allowed manual election in some few places where the card reader did not function well during the presidential election.
“But during governorship elections, we ensured that all the Card Reader machines worked. We have earlier sent warning to all the RECs that they will be held responsible for any card reader that did not work properly”, he stated.
Earlier, the convener of the Situation Room and Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Mr Clement Nwankwo, had on behalf of the Civil Societies congratulated Jega and INEC over the success of the elections.
He, however, noted that Situation Room had raised concern over Rivers, Abia and Akwa Ibom elections.