INEC Rivers State Collation Officer Raises Alarm Over Threats to Life

Professor Charles Adias, who served as the State Collation Officer for the Rivers State Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023, raised an alarm again on March 5 over ongoing threats to his life. The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Otuoke in Bayelsa, Adias, suspended the results collation during the February elections on account of the alleged threats to him and his family members.

Adias stated that some supporters of a particular political party were after his life and that they have been circulating his photograph and personal details on social media and calling on party members to deal with him. He added that those who were accusing him of rigging the elections in Rivers were making these false claims without any evidence.

The professor, who is committed to the growth and development of the political process in Nigeria, stated that he knew that being a collation officer would be challenging, but he decided to weather the storm. According to Adias, he worked within his brief as statutorily demanded and followed the Electoral Guidelines and other enabling instruments. He received reports of collated and announced results from local government area council collation officers and collated votes scored by each political party from Forms EC8C into Form EC8D.

Adias cross-checked the local government collated results with the Collation Support and Result Verification System secretariat for computational accuracy. He announced loudly the votes scored by each political party and signed, dated, and stamped the Form EC8D. He requested the polling agents to countersign, and other formalities followed up to the final collation centre in Abuja. According to Adias, there was no adverse or untoward behavior noted or recorded.

After collating results for three local government areas on February 26, Adias began receiving several phone calls and text messages threatening, abusing, and insulting his person and family. He informed the Resident Electoral Commissioner about his experiences, who condemned them and promised that his safety was assured.

On February 28, after collating results for 18 more local government areas, Adias adjourned the collation of results and insisted on a press conference to let everyone know about the several threats to his life, which could affect the collation exercise. Adias requested that until the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) addressed the issues of misinformation and blackmail and defined the roles of the State Collation Officer, he would not go on with the exercise.

INEC held a press conference debunking all the misinformation and disinformation, and the collation exercise resumed and was completed. Adias stated that there was no truth in the rumors that had been peddled and that they were just a figment of the imagination of their bearers.