Dear All:
Finger-pointing won't help at this stage...delivery delays can always occur and need not be due to sabotage.......INEC and the contractor cut the deadlines too close to Election Day.....elections should have been cancelled by INEC WAY before it really was once materials did not arrive the day before....one hopes that a lesson has (again) been learnt....
Question is: between now and Saturday nko? Whatz' happening?
Inquiring minds want to know
NM
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INEC 2011: Focus on the Erring "Contractor(s)"
TRUST
Botched election: INEC drags contractor to security agencies
Tuesday, 05 April 2011 01:56 Abdul-Rahman Abubakar
The contractors that failed to deliver sensitive election materials on time leading to postponement of last Saturday's National Assembly polls have been reported to security agencies and will soon face prosecution, INEC stated said. Although the Commission's officials refused to disclose the identity of the contractors, other sources told Daily Trust that they are Poles.
Speaking on the matter yesterday, a senior official of INEC said the matter has been reported to the security agencies for necessary action as it bothers on breach of contractual terms.
The official said, "The commission plans to prosecute the defaulting vendor. The details of the contract have been sent to appropriate security agencies and prosecution is very likely.
"The issue has to do with breach of contract terms because all that has to do with the contract was spelt out and the vendors failed to meet up with some of the important provisions."
INEC said the breach of the contract led to the embarrassment it has suffered it has suffered as a result of postponement of the National Assembly election.
The contractors failed to deliver sensitive election materials on time for the election while some of the ballot papers delivered were either incomplete and in some places some political party logos were missing.
The action of the vendors could have further jeopardised the elections as some parties were excluded from the process while some parties shared same logo which would have led to invalidation of the process.
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THE SUN
Aftermath of botched April 2 polls...INEC contractors in trouble
From FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said contractors whose failure to fulfill contractual obligations to the electoral body resulted in postponement of last Saturday's National Assembly elections would be made to pay for their lapses.
Chief Press Secretary to the commission, Kayode Robert Idowu, confirmed to Daily Sun that since the contractual terms had been breached, "the contractors have to pay for the lapse. We just don't want to do media trial. But I can assure you that penalties will be applied. Sanction will be enforced."
The disclosure came as the board of the INEC yesterday went into a marathon meeting to strategise on next Saturday's rescheduled National Assembly election, just as the commission again promised that all was set for the polls.
Details of the discussions at the meeting also showed that the commission would formally report the contractor, who failed to deliver electoral materials on schedule to the appropriate security agents for sanctions for breach of contract in line with the contractual terms and agreement.
The INEC boss, it was gathered had told the meeting that it did not intend to pass the buck on what went wrong but to strategise on how to make a success of the rescheduled elections and the need for all to co-operate to compensate Nigerians on the embarrassment caused them with last Saturday's failed election.
He explained that members of the public deserved to know the defaulters and that their identities would be disclosed at the appropriate time.
The meeting of the board comprising of all the Secretaries of the commission, national commissioners with the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, adjourned intermittently as it became stormy, following disagreements over how to ensure that the election was not bungled again.
At a point, sources close to the meeting, disclosed that Jega had to beg the commissioners
to handle well tasks assigned to them to ensure the commission did not fumble again on Saturday.
The commission Chairman had on Sunday after its failed attempt last Saturday, announced the rescheduling of the three-legged general elections to start from Saturday April 9 with the National Assembly, presidential election on April 16 and the governorship and state assemblies elections for April 26.
Also, an emergency meeting has been fixed with the 37 Residents Electoral Commissioners (REC) at the commission's headquarters today (Tuesday) for briefing on the level of preparations for the rescheduled polls and what roles were expected of them, the commission confirmed yesterday.
Interestingly, the commission said it did all that was humanly possible to hold the election last Saturday but the hitch occasioned by late arrival of crucial materials was an act of God.
The botched election might have cost the commission about N4 billion in logistics, deployment and allowances to the over 400, 000 ad-hoc staff, comprising mainly National Youth Service Corps members.
However, the Commission said it was not contemplating asking for more money from the Federal Government.
INEC had so far received almost N100 billion for the voters' registration and the conduct of the election
In his reaction, INEC Director of Public Affairs, Iorwiese Emmanuel Umenger, would not want to comment on the cost of the rescheduled elections to INEC, saying no sacrifice was too much.
Said he: "We were overwhelmed by the show of support that we should go ahead and do all to conduct good election. Whatever cost will be in the best interest of the country. INEC doesn't contemplate asking for more money."
On the botched election, Umenger described it as an act of God; otherwise the development could not have arisen.
"What happened is an act of God. Japan, with all it sophisticated technologically, they have been planning against Tsunami but what happened now that they were caught napping. We had plan B but it's just that it didn't work. It was not sabotage, it is an act of God."
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THIS DAY
INEC's Failed Vendor to Face 'Judicial Sanction'
05 Apr 2011
By Ike Abonyi and Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
The vendor who caused the fiasco that greeted the National Assembly elections last Saturday will face "judicial sanction" for breach of contract, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced.
The commission blamed late arrival of materials for the postponement of the elections which has now affected the other polls.
INEC is still keeping the identity of the vendor secret but the Chief Press Secretary to the chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, told journalists in Abuja Monday that the erring vendor would face the necessary sanction for breach of contract as stipulated in the contract terms.
Idowu said the identity of the vendor was being kept secret because his principal, Professor Attahiru Jega, does not believe in media trial of someone who is going to face judicial trial.
Also, he said Jega does not want attention to be taken away from the main issue which is getting the elections right on Saturday.
He disclosed that beside the lack of supply of materials, the commission had identified some pitfalls from last Saturday's aborted polls and was working to ensure that everything was properly put in place for this weekend.
When asked if all the materials for Saturday's election had actually been supplied to the commission, he assured in the affirmative and said they had been delivered to the states.
On whether or not the shift was creating some problems to the commission in terms of funding, Idowu said that if such existed the commission would say so to the appropriate quarters.
He also refused to say if the commission would pay the youth corps members and ad hoc staff for last Saturday's aborted poll as most of them had already been mobilised for the day's duty.
According to Idowu, the commission was not losing sleep over the exposure of sensitive electoral materials in some states before the cancellation because the materials were released to designated officers and they are serialised, meaning the security was already taken into consideration.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, played a key role in thwarting the plan by INEC to go ahead with last Saturday's elections without the use of the official result sheets.
THISDAY gathered that by the morning of the day, INEC officials nationwide already knew that the materials, especially result sheets, were not available but instead devised a lie of telling the electoral officials to go ahead with the accreditation and voting, promising that the result sheets would arrive before the completion of voting.
While some states collected the incomplete materials and proceeded to conduct the elections in the belief that the remaining materials would come later, others refused.
Edo State was the first of such states to refuse all the materials, insisting there would be no elections without the result sheets.
THISDAY learnt that Oshiomhole did not stop there but went on a street protest march, trekking from Jatau to Auchi, a distance of about five kilometres, shouting to the people to refuse any incomplete material as they were part of the rigging plans of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The newspaper was told that it was one top staff of INEC who phoned Abuja to report that the situation in Edo was becoming embarrassing to the commission. It was then directed that the state should suspend the elections.
Immediately after the elections in Edo was suspended, other states and FCT got to know and then suspended theirs without clearance from the head office.
Because it was Oshiomhole himself who led the protest, the police and other security agencies were helpless in trying to stop it.
Meanwhile, Jega has assured Nigerians that exposed ballots used during last Saturday's botched National Assembly elections could not be re-used this weekend when the parliamentary elections take place.
Addressing members of civil society organistaions monitoring the April elections, under the auspices of The Nigeria Election Situation Room, Jega said because of the in-built security features, there was no possibility of unscrupulous people being able to make use of them to carry out their nefarious activities.
Although the meeting was held behind closed-doors, the Nigeria Election Situation Room issued a statement which was signed by Clement Nwankwo, one of the conveners of the situation room. Nwankwo is also the Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre.
Nwankwo said that following the postponement of the elections, the Situation Room requested and held a meeting with Jega at the INEC Headquarters on Sunday.
He said that at the meeting, Jega explained why it was necessary to postpone the election.
He quoted Jega as saying that in the first place, the vendor with the material for North-central, South-south and South-east was supposed to have delivered materials to Abuja on Friday 1 April 2011 but kept postponing the delivery time and finally delivered the materials in Lagos at 9.00a.m of April 2,2011, which had already compromised the exercise given that they then had to be moved to Abuja before being dispersed to the various states.
He said: "In the second place, there were problems with the accreditors in the field, all of whom had been trained but some of whom never turned up. Again, at some polling stations there were more people than anticipated, over 1,000 in some cases. Finally, and most importantly of all, was the widespread absence of results' sheets, which rendered the whole exercise redundant."
Nwankwo said Jega then explained that his initial thought was that the postponed National Assembly elections should have held on Monday, 4 April in order not to leave too much time between the initial exercise and the re-scheduled one given that sensitive materials were already in the field but this turned out to be impossible.
According to him, political parties, security agencies and election observers all objected to the new timetable, with the result that it was imperative for him to postpone the parliamentary elections to April 9, the presidential election to April 16 and the gubernatorial, state houses of assembly elections to April 26th (April 23 being Easter).
"Regarding the sensitive material already used, Professor Jega assured that because of the in-built security features there was no possibility of unscrupulous people being able to make use of them to carry out their nefarious activities," he declared.
On the issue of inaccurate or missing party logos, Nwankwo said Jega explained that part of the problem was caused by the incessant changes of candidates following court judgments but that some of the problems were caused by INEC not supervising the process sufficiently.
"On the issue of RECs carrying on with the election after the announcement of the postponement, Jega explained that, although they were informed about the postponement a full hour before it was made public, they were pressured by the electorate to continue with the exercise and in most cases had little choice in the matter," he stated.
On the issue of possible sabotage within INEC, Nwankwo said Jega needed hard evidence before he could act and that he also cautioned that such allegations were just that – allegations – and might in some cases be levelled to cause distraction.
Concerning NYSC members, Jega explained that INEC had decided to give authority to the zonal commanders in order to instil discipline following the lapses that occurred during the registration exercise.
Regarding the people themselves monitoring the exercise by staying back at the voting centres and taking photos Jega said that INEC was clear about this and had encouraged people to do so.
Jega commended the role of the security agencies, in particular the Army and Navy, both of which branches of the Armed Forces had been extremely useful. However, he promised to look into the report that soldiers had allegedly beaten up observers in Nasarawa State.
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