Tribunal: INEC’ll be fair to all parties, says Ekiti REC

By Yaqoub Popoola / Correspondent, Ado-Ekiti
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured that the commission won’t sabotage the efforts of any party in the prosecution of the ongoing case at the Election Petition Tribunal in Ekiti State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ekiti State, Alhaji Halilu Pai, who spoke with journalists on telephone on Friday assured that all materials used for the conduct of the election would be safeguarded for all parties to have access to them to advance their cases.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is challenging the victory of the Governor-elect and Peoples Democratic Party Governorship candidate, Mr Ayodele Fayose, over the incumbent Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, in the June 21 poll.
Shortly after the commencement of the trial, the Justice Mohammed Sirajo-chaired tribunal gave an order empowering the APC to inspect all materials used for the election, following which the PDP had kicked, urging the commission to protect the materials from being tinkered with.
But the INEC boss in Ekiti, who foreclosed the possibility of those materials being tampered with by the petitioner, said he had contacted security agencies, adding that the INEC warehouse was now under police surveillance.
Pai said: “There is no cause for alarm. Immediately we got wind of the petition filed by APC, we contacted the police and the State Security Service (SSS) to beef up security around our warehouse.
“I want to tell you now that the place is under serious security watch. There is no reason to fear whether those material will be tampered with.
“ We are going to protect them and ensure that we make them available to all parties as directed by the tribunal as the trial progresses. We have demonstrated non-partisanship in our dealings with all political parties and we will continue to maintain this.”
The INEC, however, affirmed that the results that were declared across the 177 wards by the staff of the commission on the day of the election were true representations of the wishes of the Ekiti electorate, adding that the commission had no reason to take sides in the conduct of any election, since it is not an annexure of any political party, but a statutory body established to be an unbiased umpire in the conduct of elections.
He, however, told Nigerians, particularly politicians to continue to have implicit confidence in INEC as truly unbiased umpire and desist from making comments that could denigrate the commission.