Elections result sheets meant for Lagos and Gombe states in the forthcoming elections were found in Enugu State, few hours to the commencement of the polls, an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.
Also, result sheets meant for some local government areas in the state could not be found until the postponement was announced.
As at Wednesday afternoon, the result sheets for the Aninri Local Government Area in Enugu West Senatorial District are yet to be found by INEC.
Aninri is the local government area of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who is seeking re-election into the Senate for the fifth time.
In an exclusive interview with Premium Times, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Enugu, Emeka Ononamadu, said all election materials belonging to other states ”but which strayed” into the states have been returned to the states they belong to.
He said efforts are on to ensure that the rescheduled elections hold peacefully and are free, fair and credible.
Ekweremadu had on Monday night raised the alarm of alleged plan by unnamed persons to frustrate his return to the Senate, saying result sheets meant for the five local government areas in his district were still missing.
But Ononamadu denied that the result sheets for the state were missing, saying there was only a shortage of the sheets.
He said corrections are being made to ensure that things are in order.
“The problem we had was a shortage not that the result sheets were missing,” Mr Ononamadu said.
“There were other ‘things’ belonging to other states that we found in our packages like Gombe and Lagos States but they have been returned to them. Results sheets for Gombe and Lagos States were found in our packages but they have since been moved back.
“All our result sheets are complete now except for the Aninri local government area. Except that, everything is okay.”
Ononamadi said his office is crossing all ‘ts’ and dotting all ‘is,’ ahead of the polls. He said he has been crosschecking the election materials in the company of political party representatives and security agents.
“I can give you a final status of the whole thing this evening when we conclude the arrangement because we have been going round with the security agencies and political parties to confirm the contents of the bagged items so that there are no items belonging to other states in our bags,” he added.
