2019: Bauchi INEC denies rigging allegation

BAUCHI State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed allegations that collation centers for the forthcoming general elections will be relocated to Army or Police barracks as the case may be, describing such as mere baseless and unfounded rumours.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, (REC) Ibrahim Abdullahi while speaking to our correspondent on Sunday explained that the renovation of INEC offices is not limited to Bauchi state alone as it is a nationwide exercise pointing out that,”you see, as I said it is not an INEC project, it is a direct labour affair by INEC, actually aside from Ningi which is ongoing now in Bauchi state, there were other local governments which contractors have reported and have even finished work, I refer you Alkaleri, in short it depends on the reporting time of the contractor because a similar renovation has taken place in Dambam, what they are seeing here is that the contractor is just reporting in Ningi and he has given us the assurance that he will complete before the scheduled date of the commencement of the elections”.

When reminded that the elections will hold in three weeks time and the INEC offices need to be accessible to people, the REC simply said, “when we get to the river we will know how to cross it. It is not true that the collation centers will be relocated, you know that this is the season and people are entitled to say what they want to say and it is good that we are hearing it now so that we will continue to correct that impression. My reaction is that it is not true because we don’t have any situation that will warrant such because Bauchi is peaceful in fact one of the most peaceful states in the whole of North-East geopolitical region, so we have no reason whatsoever and we are not contemplating moving the center of election activities out of the present locations across the state”.

He emphasised that there is no directive to relocate collation centres to anywhere outside the INEC offices saying that, “in fact, I have signed a statement to that effect to dispel the rumors going round, the press statement is both in English and Hausa”.

ALSO READ: Egungun festival and its abuse of power

On the protest by some political stakeholders from Dass/Tafawa-Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency on the alleged relocation of the collation center from Zwall to Dass, the REC explained that, “a similar question was raised during a recent stakeholders meeting and I gave them the genesis of what happened in Zwall leading to the said protest precisely on Thursday, 11th of this month people came outside with a letter requesting for the relocation of the collation center from Zwall to Dass, the following day there was a counter-protest that came in protesting against the request and you know one has to investigate and so I ordered for convening of a stakeholders meeting from the area separately and they all did their stakeholders meeting on the same day,I deliberately fixed that day so that there will be no comparing of notes,so the same day Tafawa-Balewa held its own, Bogoro and Dass too held their own”.

Ibrahim Abdullahi added that, “as a result of this, they all filed in their reports and you know that I am responsible for relocating or locating of collation centers so I filed in my report based on the resolution of the three and sent it up, so, for now, Zwall remains the collation center, that is what I have told the people who asked me that question, this is the action I have taken, mine is just to file in my report based on the outcome of the meeting and there is no directive as am talking to you on what to do with that place, so constitutionally or procedurally that is how it has been and so it remains as far as am concerned”.

It would be recalled that some opposition political parties and their candidates have alleged that the INEC was planning to rig the elections in favour of the ruling APC in the state considering the timing of the renovation of the offices across the state as well as planned relocation of collation centers to barracks to deny them access to the offices.