Godwin Otang – Calabar
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally accepted to sign election result sheets for the governorship and State House of Assembly Elections in Cross River.
The commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of Cross River, Professor Gabriel Yomere said the decision to sign the result sheets was to maintain a clear conscience and boost conference in the electoral process.
According to Yomere, the commission has received a lot of petitions in the last few days, bordering on alleged illegal possession of result sheets by some political actors and with some of the petitions beckoning on the commission to sign the result sheets as a way of guaranteeing a transparent process.
“Nothing has been tampered with in these materials. They have been cooking whatever rumours they want to cook.
“This week I have received over 8 to 10 petitions, claiming that the results sheets are in circulation somewhere in Cross River, and thereby demanding to sign the results sheets.”
The INEC Boss further explained that “There is no provision in the Electoral Act that the result sheets should be signed, it is not a valid tradition in INEC, and such rumors don’t move me, whatever I do with fear of God and my conscience, I do it.
“Myself and my management have resolved to sign the result sheets, I will sign that of the Governorship and my administrative secretary will sign that of the House if Assembly. It is not to satisfy the political parties, but my own conscience,” Yomere said.
However, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) headed by Mr Anthony Bissong, said they are satisfied with the decision of the commission: “We don’t want a repeat of what happened in the last election, where result sheets of Cross River North, were conspicuously absent after collation, so am happy that INEC has yielded voluntarily to sign all the results that would be used for this election.
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