Following a report alleging that its officials visited the state Government House at night to manipulate the polls in favor of the incumbent Gov, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied any meeting with Adamawa State Government officials to rig the rerun governorship election.
Ahmadu Fintiri. Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner, and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee debunked the claims in a statement on Thursday.
Okoye emphasized that no such visit or meeting took place, let alone the compilation of any purported list of collation and returning officers. He further noted that the commission appointed and retained only one Returning Officer for the governorship election, who also doubled as the State Collation Officer for the Presidential Election.
According to Okoye, it is the standard practice of the Commission to deploy National Commissioners, RECs, and other staff from the headquarters or neighboring states for supplementary or off-cycle elections where doing so is considered necessary. He stated that Adamawa State was not specifically targeted and that in all other states, the RECs worked cooperatively with the National Commissioners except in Adamawa State for reasons that are now obvious to all.