INEC Result Sheets Show Contradictory Scores For Kwara ACN

[Defender]

As official refuses to count accredited voter, admits over-voting

More damning evidences of discrepancies in the April 26 Kwara State governorship ballot surfaced last Wednesday, as INEC witnesses were confronted with certified copies of the commission's documents, which showed that the number of votes credited to ACN at some ward levels, were higher than what was reflected at the local government levels.

The same documents also showed that votes credited to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the ward levels were lower to what was reflected at local government levels, again confirming allegations of inflation of results in favour of the PDP and under representation of ACN votes.

INEC is the fourth respondent in the petition the ACN filed against the commission's declaration of PDP's Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed as the winner of the governorship ballot in Kwara State.

Counsel to ACN, Osaro Eghobamien (SAN), showed the tribunal Form EC8B (result sheet for the ward level) for Afon Ward (Asa Local Government) in which it was recorded that ACN scored 836 against PDP's 808. He then showed the court Form EC8C (result sheet for the same Asa Local Government Council Area) in which the column for the result from Afon Ward showed that ACN got 245, while the PDP was given 920.

Eghobamien produced the exhibits (the forms) during the cross-examination of Iyemesa Eseoghene, the INEC collation officer for Ila-Oja Ward of Asa Local Government Council Area, where Mrs. Eseoghene claimed the collation was done perfectly well and was devoid of errors.

Also in poling unit 001 of Ila-Oja Ward, which Eseoghene supervised, the Form EC8A showed that the number of valid votes (123) clearly exceeded the number of voters (16) recorded, as having queued to vote in the election.

The two witnesses the commission called on Monday, when it opened its defence, variously admitted that the number of voters exceeded the number of voters accredited for the election and that results declared in Forms EC8B  and Form EC8A  sometime conflicted with the actual figures of votes scored by individual political parties.

Pastor Sunday Giwa, who was the INEC Supervisory Presiding Officer for Share Ward 5, was asked during cross-examination by ACN counsel, Ebun Sofunde (SAN), to sum the total figures of valid votes recorded for all the political parties at a polling unit of Ila-Oja Ward of Asa Local Government Council Area and he arrived at 414.

The figure 414 (total valid votes) was discovered to have exceeded the figure 25, which is the number of voters on the queue as at the time voting commenced in the polling unit under consideration, establishing a clear case of over-voting.

Sofunde also asked Giwa to count from the voter's register for another polling unit, Open Space unit 001 of Share Ward 5 in Ifelodun Local Government Council Area, the number of (accreditation) ticks for the governorship/House of Assembly election.

Giwa counted 77 ticks in respect of the gubernatorial polls, whereas Form EC8A for the same polling unit showed figure 291 as the number of accredited voters, again exposing clear case of inflation of the number of accredited voters.

Giwa, an SPO, alarmed the tribunal when he claimed ignorance of what the abbreviations for the three categories of the April 26 general elections on the voters register meant, including NASS, standing for the National Assembly Election, PRE, representing presidential election, and GHA, meaning Governorship/House of Assembly.

Giwa feigned ignorance of what the abbreviations meant after Sofunde asked him what would constitute an appropriate accreditation for each of the elections, claiming instead that it would be "pardonable" for the INEC officials to tick the voters' indiscriminately without such ticks corresponding to the category of elections being held.

Efiong Ubong, the second witness, who was the INEC Collation Officer for Pategi Ward 4 during the election, also summed up figures of valid votes recorded for all the parties in the polling unit 003 of the same and got a figure (314) different from what was recorded on the EC8A for the same unit which is 302.

Asked to count from the voters' register the number of accredited voters for the same unit, Ubong flatly rejected to count it, in what was an attempt to cover-up what the ACN calls rampant cases of over-voting and non-accreditation of voters during the poll.

Osun Defender