INEC says returning officers cannot fix elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday said that no returning officer could fix election Nigeria.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers, Mr Ikoiwak Aniedi, said this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) while referring to the APC’s claims that the Saturday supplementary election in Etche was declared inconclusive by the returning officers.

NAN reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers had urged the INEC not to declare the result or it would contradict itself.

The party claimed that the Etche State Constituency and Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency were formally declared inconclusive by both Returning Officers, Prof. Olatunbosun Odusanya and Prof. Omotola respectively at the Okehi.

According to the party, they (the officers) subsequently announced that the conclusion of the process will take place on Sunday or Monday.

On this allegation, Ikoiwak said that the officers would not have said such.

”If the man (returning officer) had said it, it is a wrong one, he has no right; have you ever heard that a returning officer fixed a day for election?”

He said that the returning officer had never fixed a day for election, but to announce the result and report to INEC what happened.

Ikoiwak said there was no way the returning officer could have fixed election when he (the officer) had called the people to come to INEC headquarters by 9 O’Clock on Sunday for election result declaration.

He urged Nigerians to always try to know the kind of election they are voting in as all elections are different with different laws guiding them.

According to him, the law is very clear, a rerun election is quite different from a run-off election or a supplementary.

”So, what we did was the right thing by declaring,” Ikoiwak said.