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Results of 2011 elections:Parties set to
tackle INEC
By Chuks Ehirim
Newsdiaryonline Friday July 7,2011
The last has perhaps not been heard regarding the conduct of the
2011 general elections which the Independent National Electoral
Commission[INEC] has been celebrating as credible, free and
fair. Various political parties which participated in the
said elections are now up in arms,questioning the genuineness of
the claim by the electoral body. The parties which operate under
the umberalla of the
Inter-Party Advisory Council [IPAC] are questioning the results
of the elections in the South-East, South-South, as well as the
such states in the North as Kaduna, Kano, Katsina,
Bauchi,Plateau, Benue, Niger, Adamawa, etc.
The parties are insisting that results made public by INEC in
these states after the elections,did not reflect the true voting
pattern of Nigerian people. Speaking to
on this issue, Chairman
of IPAC, Chief Emma Osita Okereke, said the body has asked INEC
to come out with its
report on the election, a demand that has not been heeded. He
threatened that IPAC will in a matter of days, make public its
own report on the said elections.
''We demanded for the report of the elections in the
South-East, South-South, Kaduna,Kano, Katsina,Bauchi,
Plateau,Niger, Benue,Adamawa, etc.We told them that we are going
to produce our own report. It is being printed in South
Africa.It is a 250 page report which we are going to make public
very soon'', Okereke said.
It was reported last week that IPAC had a face off with
INEC during a retreat at Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
While the electoral body posited that the parties demanded for
payment of some allowances and when they could not get it, they
backed out of the retreat, Okereke argued that INEC lied.
According to him,''the people are creating problems for
themselves. We never asked them for money, besides, they
are not the people paying for the retreat….Jega is going around
the World telling people that he conducted a free and fair
election. ….When I entered the venue of the retreated and saw
only one TV camera … there were no media organization
represented there.''
He added that ''they wanted us to come and sign a document
showing that they conducted a free and fair election. That was
what they intended doing.Again, l don’t see any reason why INEC
should be allowing only foreign organizations to be putting
together retreats. It is either IFEX or IRI. These organizations
are not supposed to
be mediating between INEC and political parties''.
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