RIVERS: Will Collation Officer write results ‘under special conditions’ again?

His face was dull like one who had just woken up from sleep. His steps were unstable and his speech barely audible. Prof. John Etu Efeotor, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources and returning officer for Rivers State in the presidential and National Assembly elections, wore the looks of a comedian, and the scene he created at the collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) only reinforced that perception.

After the elections on March 28, world attention had shifted to the collation centre where returning officers from the different states took turns to announce the results. But while it took returning officers only a couple of minutes to read the results, Efeotor struggled for half an hour to read his and even had to be helped out by an INEC official in the end.

Before the declaration of the elections’ results, Rivers had been in the news as the state with the worst case of violence malpractices. As a matter of fact, the governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and thousands of All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters in the state had to boycott the elections upon suspicion that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC officials in the state had connived to perfect ways of rigging them in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Apparently acting on a tip-off, the first thing the Governor Amaechi did when he got to the polling unit where he intended to cast his vote was to ask to see the result sheet before submitting himself for accreditation. It turned out that the polling officials could not produce the result sheet, fuelling the governor’s suspicion that polling officials across the state had concluded plans to ignore the ballot and merely write results that would favour the PDP. Consequently, the governor boycotted voting and directed other APC supporters in the state to do same.

The boycott merely yielded the entire landscape to PDP thugs who had a free day snatching ballot boxes and unleashing terror on suspected APC supporters. No fewer than seven people, including a soldier, were reportedly killed in the reign of terror. The APC in the state immediately forwarded a petition to INEC headquarters in Abuja, alleging mass rigging as well as intimidation of APC supporters by security agents and armed thugs of the PDP, and demanding outright cancellation of the elections in the state.

Other political parties in the state had joined the APC in calling for the cancellation of the elections. At a joint press briefing in Port Harcourt, the parties alleged high level irregularities in the conduct of the elections in the state.

The leader of the group, Hon Nsirim Chima of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), accused the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner of conniving with the PDP to rig the elections. He said: “We, the undersigned political parties under the auspices of Concerned Political Parties in Rivers State, committed to upholding globally acceptable tenets of democracy, unanimously declare that there was no election on the 28th of March 2015.

“What was purported to be an election was a mockery of democracy, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in concert with the Resident Electoral commissioner (REC) of Rivers State marred the entire process with high momentum of irregularities ad malpractices deliberately orchestrated to rig the election in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“The fact that INEC in Rivers State compromised is incontrovertible, as there was virtually no polling unit where votes were cast, counted results announced and pasted as required by the electoral law.”

The group also alleged killings and general intimidation as PDP thugs, allegedly aided by security operatives, brazenly unleashed mayhem on intending voters and members of other political parties.

In the circumstance, everyone waited with bated breath for the returning officer from Rivers State. But if they had expected a serious-looking returning officer from the battle front in Rivers State, they were grossly mistaken. An unimaginably calm Efeotor literally turned his own declaration of results into a session of comedy.

It began with INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega’s observation that unlike other returning officers before him, he was not reading his own results from the original result.

“Prof, I observed that you are not reading from the original result sheet,” Jega said.

“Yes sir,” Efeotor concurred.

“But you have to read from the original result sheet. That is where everyone reads from.’

“Okay sir.”

By the time Efeotor resumed reading, he went back to the sheet Jega said he should not read from.

“But Prof, I told you to read from the original,” Jega protested.

“I am reading sir,” Efeotor quipped.

“Yes, I know that you are reading, but not from the original INEC master sheet.

“I only read typed materials sir.”

Efeotor attempted to read from the original result sheet but could not make progress as the figures he voiced out did not correspondent with those in the copy Jega held in his hands.

After a few attempts and repeated correction by Jega, Efeotor protested: “Sir, I told you I only read typed materials.”

“But Prof, who wrote the figures?” Jega asked.

“I did, but under special conditions?” Efeotor responded, sending the audience into a bout of laughter.

At this point, an INEC official, who felt that additional light would help Efeotor, brought a big phone. Still, the professor could not make progress.

As he struggled to read with the additional light from the phone, the INEC official appeared with a halogen lamp.

“Thank you!” Efeotor exclaimed in a tone that set everyone reeling with laughter. But even at that, he still could not read.

At this point, Jega suggested that the INEC official, who had been supplying the additional light, should read out the results while Efeotor supervised.

Efeotor’s action, especially his claim that he wrote the results under special conditions, has since provoked a debate as to whether his action at the collation centre was natural or orchestrated to achieve a desired end. Some say the professor could have deliberately generated the drama to douse extenuate public apprehension of what had transpired in Rivers State during the elections or generate a comic relief to douse the tension generated by the cantankerous action of a former minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, who a few minutes earlier had nearly subverted the announcement of results.

Orubebe had stormed the collation centre, asking Jega to leave the venue and threatening that there would be no further announcement of results except the INEC chairman responded to a petition the PDP had sent to him over the conduct of the elections in some northern states where Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC, had outrun the PDP candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.