Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Festus Okoye, has said that the electoral umpire did not have power to invalidate any declared result.
This followed the call for the cancellation of last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in the country due to widespread infractions by hoodlums in Rivers State.
Recall that the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Mr. Julius Abure, on Sunday, in Abuja, urged the INEC to annul the results in Rivers, alleging that officials sent by the Commission to conduct the elections in the state had been subjected to intimidation and assault.
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However, Okoye, the National Commissioner of INEC, in an interview with TV360 posited that the Commission is not free to void election results without adhering to the established procedure.
“We don’t eliminate results at will. The Presiding Officer must invalidate any results that are the consequence of excessive voting at a polling place.
“If a presiding officer is unable to deploy, they must complete a form and give it to the registration collection officer at the first level of collection. From there, the process continues. therefore, and then it goes on from there. So, our electoral process is based on procedures,” Okoye explained.