The Akwa-Ibom State Resident\u00a0Electoral\u00a0 Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, has described as \u201cmisrepresentation,\u00a0lies and innuendos\u201d allegations which had been on for three weeks that he and other officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), have been compromised.<\/p>\n
According to him, he had never stepped\u00a0into the home of any resident of the state and so could not have held private meetings with people\u00a0that he does not know.<\/p>\n
He was reacting to accusations of alleged compromised levelled against him by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa-Ibom State and national chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the allegation\u00a0 of holding private meetings with some people, this is totally\u00a0 incorrect. Since resuming duty in Akwa-Ibom\u00a0 state I have made the deliberate\u00a0 social sacrifice\u00a0 of never having stepped\u00a0 into the home of any resident of the state to obviate such accusations. So I cannot have held meetings with people privately\u00a0 that I do not know\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
The position of Igini was contained in a statement signed by him titled:\u00a0\u201cAllegation of collusion wholly incorrect and untrue\u201d, and obtained by INEC Press Corps in Abuja on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The statement reads: \u201cIn the past 3 weeks several misrepresentations,\u00a0lies, innuendos\u00a0 and allegations\u00a0have been directed at the INEC in Akwa-Ibom State generally and to my person as the Resident\u00a0 Electoral\u00a0 Commissioner\u00a0specifically.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a public servant, I am mindful of the burdens of my task as an Electoral Manager that in a very adversarial contest where political\u00a0 groups seek asymmetrical advantages over others, they may be tempted to descend\u00a0to some unethical\u00a0conduct; however it is generally\u00a0accepted that they ought to restrain themselves from such conduct guided by the provisions of the Electoral\u00a0 Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, one has noticed that there appears to be some impunity where\u00a0 some individuals refuse to be restrained by the law and have thereby persisted in attacks at the electoral\u00a0body\u00a0using misrepresentations.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo correct these misrepresentations\u00a0 for the benefit of the public I therefore wish to state as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cINEC is not a contestant but an umpire in this election and will make every effort to ensure that it remains neutral irrespective\u00a0 of any provocation or misrepresentations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the responsibility\u00a0of INEC, not political\u00a0 groups to determine\u00a0who\u00a0are recruited as Ad Hoc staff. The process of recruiting, training and deploying\u00a0 Ad-Hoc staff is made transparently clear to all stakeholders, their sources are well known to all Nigerians from NYSC, Federal MDAs and Federal\u00a0 Universities. How they were selected and trained\u00a0 was shared with all parties in Akwa-Ibom\u00a0 state where INEC invited all parties and gave them the list to examine and state any objections they have. After that was done, no party raised any objections in the presence of over 30 media organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the allegation\u00a0of holding private meetings with some people, this is totally\u00a0 incorrect. Since resuming duty in Akwa-Ibom\u00a0 state I have made the deliberate\u00a0 social sacrifice\u00a0 of never having stepped\u00a0into the home of any resident of the state to obviate such accusations. So I cannot have held meetings with people privately\u00a0 that I do not know.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the suggestion\u00a0that I delivered all uncollected\u00a0PVCs to the state\u00a0 Government,\u00a0again this is false and groundless. In point of fact, when some PVCS were damaged I ensured that the Commission\u00a0reproduced them so that the affected\u00a0 voters will not be disenfranchised\u00a0 and also received and delivered 33,077 PVCS for distribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have also heard that I convey a body-language that is bad for election management\u00a0in the State…whatever that means…but let me state clearly that my small body frame has no body language\u00a0that is capable of intimidating anyone. If anything, I own up to conveying the body language\u00a0of neutrality\u00a0and impartiality\u00a0which is beneficial\u00a0for all political\u00a0 groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that political\u00a0 groups seek assymetrical political\u00a0 advantage which is their right to do, but it is the job of INEC to ensure a symmetrical\u00a0 playing field for political\u00a0 competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have also heard that I did not give comfort to the brethren\u00a0of a group in the state. Let me assure the Comrade Governor\u00a0 who made this claim that\u00a0I am in Akwa-Ibom\u00a0to provide the level playing field and comfort for everyone\u00a0 that he sought in Edo in 2015 when I conducted\u00a0 elections to the comfort of all groups there.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy devotion to free and fair election\u00a0 has not waned or diminished hence I cannot deny the people of Akwa-Ibom the service\u00a0 I have faithfully\u00a0 rendered to Edo people.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me state strongly therefore to all political\u00a0 groups\u00a0and particularly\u00a0the people of Akwa-Ibom\u00a0 that there will be a level playing\u00a0 field\u00a0 for every\u00a0 political\u00a0 party.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Akwa-Ibom State Resident\u00a0Electoral\u00a0 Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, has described as \u201cmisrepresentation,\u00a0lies and innuendos\u201d allegations which had been on for three weeks that he and other officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), have been compromised. According to him, he had never stepped\u00a0into the home of any resident of the state and so could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}