GUARDIAN NG
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun the state collation of results of the Saturday’s Governorship Election in Lagos State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise began on Sunday at 12 p.m. at the INEC Media Centre located within the headquarters premises of the electoral umpire.
In his opening address, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), disclosed that no fewer than 16 out of the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state results were ready at the state collation centre.
“It is not possible for any REC (Resident Electoral Commissioner) to manipulate elections in Nigeria. If it happened in the past, it is no longer possible,” Agbaje said.
He said that the available results would be taken by LGA as they arrived.
According to him, there will be a recess if the results from the remaining four local governments have not arrived as at the time when the available would have been exhausted.
Agbaje, who reiterated that it was impossible for any REC or Electoral Officer to rig an election, decried the do-or-die attitude of politicians to elections.
“In Nigeria, we are still seeing election as a do-or-die affair,” he added.
In her remarks, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), the Returning Officer for the Governorship Election, said that the centre must get the collation right.
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