The call by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to remove the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Anugbum Onuoha has hit brick walls.
Thrle Independent National Electoral Commission Monday urged the party to focus on the process of Saturday’s governorship election.
INEC urged the PDP to leave its REC out of its concerns, saying scrutiny should be on the processes amd not the REC.
Governor Godwin Obaseki, his party chairman in the state, Anthony Aziegbemhin and the national leadership of the PDP, had claimed a close relationship between Onuoha and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and therefore called for the removal of the REC.
They expressed fears that the REC would manipulate the election in favor of the All Progressives Congress.
On Thursday, Aziegbemhin escalated the matter by submitting a formal protest letter to INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.
In the letter, Aziegbemhin called for Onuoha’s immediate redeployment, citing concerns over his past role as Commissioner and Special Adviser for Lands, Survey, and Housing under Wike’s administration as Rivers State governor.
“The ties between these two are too close to ignore as they share familiarities and are also close associates. To be clear, the relationship between the two is outlined below:
“The said Edo REC is a cousin to the Minister of the FCT, Mr. Wike. He also served as a former Commissioner and Special Adviser for Lands, Survey, and Housing to Mr. Wike during his tenure as Rivers governor,” the letter partly read.
The controversy intensified after Wike, during a recent interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Friday, acknowledged the familiar connection but emphasised that Onuoha is capable of carrying out his duties impartially, without influence from family or political affiliations.
Responding to these concerns, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, urged the PDP to focus on the process of the election and not on the REC.
“The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Edo State will not be redeployed. The governorship election will be conducted on 21st September 2024 in 4,519 polling units, not in the REC’s office.
“In the same manner, polling unit results will be declared by the respective Presiding Officers after the voting, ballot sorting and counting processes, in the presence of accredited party agents and other stakeholders.
“The PO will also take a picture of the PU result in each polling unit with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, and upload the same to the INEC Result Viewing portal. This process is not the same as electronic voting or electronic transmission and collation of results. The IReV is for transparency purposes. The Nigerian constitution doe#s not yet recognise electronic voting. Copies of the PU results will be given to accredited party agents.
“Thereafter, the various collation stages will be undertaken before the declaration of the final result at the State Collation Centre in Benin-City.
“The PDP should, therefore, focus on the process, not on the REC or other officials of the commission. The conduct of the election and result collation activity will take place in the open and accredited party agents will witness every step,” Oyekanmi explained.
He added that the commission would not give preference to any political party over the other.
“INEC does not rig elections. The current commission conducted two governorship elections in Edo State in 2016 and 2020 successfully and nobody accused us of rigging.
“We assure all the political parties, registered voters and other stakeholders that the commission will provide a level playing field and not give any advantage to one political party or candidate over the other,” he added.
