Six members of staff of the Independent National Electoral Commision (INEC), were arrested in the evening of Monday, May 4 and morning of Tuesday, May 5, 2015 by the police in Abia State for allegedly attempting to take away seven card readers and result sheets from the commission’s office.
According to sources, the card readers and result sheets which were being carted away were allegedly those deployed in Obingwa Local Government Area, where the PDP had recorded one of its most incredulous margins during the governorship election, polling 82,240 votes as against APGA’s 1,952 votes.
Sources also revealed that Obingwa LGA was one of the three LGAs initially cancelled by the INEC REC before she made an about-turn following pressure from Abia governor Theodore Orji.
The list of arrested INEC staff include the Head of ICT Dept., Engr. Herbert Ejiofor, Mr Nnamdi Nwabuko, who was driving the materials out of INEC office at the time of his arrest, Amauche Ebi Dike, Charles Mba, Nkem Ichita, Uche Enyioma, Innocent Dire, all members of staff of the ICT department and the Secretary to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Esther David.
Nnamdi Nwabuko, who was the first to be arrested by policemen posted to guard the INEC office while trying to move the materials. He was detained and his car impounded. Confirming the incident to newsmen in her office on Tuesday, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Selina Oko, said that she had handed over Nwabuko and the head of the ICT department, Mr Herbert Ejiofor, to Zone 9 police for further investigations.
“When I came to work this morning, I was informed that one of my staff was arrested by the police, while trying to take away some electoral materials out and when I inspected the booth of his car, it was discovered that there were seven card readers and other sensitive materials used during the elections. I handed them over to the police because they were taking the materials away without my approval,” Oko said.
She described the act as condemnable, saying, “it would have been difficult for me to know that materials were being taken away from here if they were not caught on their way out.” She said that she could not have authorised the suspects to take the materials out of the premises “even if they had sought for her approval.”
“How can I authorise sensitive materials to be taken away from the office?” she asked.
