Mike Igini, the Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, has denied manipulating the Presidential and National Assembly elections results in the state.
Igini made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Uyo on Saturday.
He said the allegation was not true and that the election was not manipulated.
Igini said that elections were won and lost at the polling units, adding that the REC would not be at the polling units from the beginning to the close of the polls.
He said: “The allegations are incorrect.
“We have a total of 2,980 polling units.
“I was not in any these polling units from the opening to the close of the polls.
“I have no vote to give nor will I allow anybody to manipulate the election process.”
Igini noted that the commission had put in place anti-rigging devices to check election malpractice in the state.
Igini explained that the strength of the political parties were determined on the election day at the polling units.
The REC said that henceforth no politician would have access to poll officials in the state.
He said: “No politician will know the level of presiding and collation officers in the state.
“They can no longer be the ones to supply ad-hoc staff that function in those categories.”
The REC noted that the era where politicians were writing results had ended in Akwa Ibom State, alleging that politicians before now carried result sheets to their houses, thumb print and re-write results.
Igini said: “What they used to do in time past is to write results but it is now that they allow people to vote their conscience.
“The era of writing results on behalf of the good people of Akwa Ibom is gone forever.”
Reacting, Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, said there were several irregularities during the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
Enang said: “The results in Akwa Ibom do not in any manner reflect the true voting and will of the people of the state.
“It was heavily and massively manipulated by the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) in alliance with INEC’s permanent and Ad-hoc staff in the state.
“Throughout the course of the campaign, I try to personally avoid castigating INEC.
“I have aligned myself with all the complains that we as a party made against the Akwa Ibom REC.
“And I have thought that in the course of the elections, that he will display what I thought I knew about him in terms of integrity, but the last elections of February 23 is the lowest low.”
