INEC Chair, Mahmod
In a statement released online, the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), has clarified the conduct of its staff, Mutiu Salawu,
caught on Sunday at St. Patrick Grammar School, Gbongan, tearing the
polls result for Ayedaade Local Government Area.
A video of the incident which went viral online, show Salawu saying
that he was sent by the electoral officer for the LGA, Aderinoye
Olukemi, to tear the result of the notice board at the collation centre
of the LGA.
However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Osun State,
Segun Agbaje, in a statement on Tuesday explained Salawu was acting on a
directive to replace the Form EC 60 which had erroneous result with the
correct one.
He said the directive was given to Salawu by Mrs Olukemi after she
received information from the local government security chief of an
error on the form pasted at the collation centre.
“Mr. Mutiu Salawu, being a dutiful staff, went to carry out the
lawful instruction of his boss when he was accosted by a mob that
rough-handled him before they took him to Adelani Rafiu Oyediran
Ajanaku’s house along the New Gbongan Osogbo Road.
“There, he was humiliated, harassed and subjected to take
manipulated photographs that were sent to various social digital
platforms. He was then brought to the INEC State Office where he was
harassed by some section of the media”, Agbaje narrated.
“The LGA Collation Officer, Prof. Adeagbo, accepted the fact
that there was an error in the EC 60 (E) pasted at the LGA Collation
Centre, especially the figure (10,836) recorded for PDP on the poster
which is different from the actual votes scored (9,836) by the PDP.
“It should be noted that the INEC staff, Salawu Mutiu Kolawole,
did not destroy the Result Sheet for the said election for they are
intact in the custody of the Commission and copies of same are with
agents of the 48 political parties that contested the Governorship
Election.”
Agbaje expressed INEC’s displeasure that a section of the media reportedly broadcast the event without verification.
“The Commission is displeased with the conduct of a section of
the press that repeatedly broadcast the event maliciously without proper
investigation to know the true position of things. This attitude has
misinformed the public and INEC has been misrepresented in the
narrative,” he said.
Read INEC’s statement in full below;
