By Deborah Nnamdi
Fresh controversy has hit the proposed 5 October Local Government elections in Rivers State, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it has not releases the voters register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC.
The register is an INEC document used by both commissions to verify registered voters for both national and state elections, and the commission said it has not released it, despite Governor Sim Fubara’s claim on Wednesday that RSIEC has it in its custody.
INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) for Rivers State, Dr. Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem, revealed that the commission has not handed over the State voters register to RSIEC contrary to claims that the latter is in possession of the document.
Speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt, Dr. Sinikiem explained that INEC’s tradition is to provide the voter register to RSIEC before local government elections, as mandated by law, but noted that compliance two the local commission’s requests was hindered by a court order from the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Dr. Sinikiem said: “The tradition of the commission is that before an election for State at the local government the only responsibility that we have is to give them voters register because we are empowered to maintain and keep voters register for the country.
“However, to make it very clear, the RSIEC has written to us about two times for the release of the register, but we had not released it before we received from our headquarters an order from a Federal High Court restraining INEC from releasing the registers.
“So until now, we have not officially handed over the Rivers state voters register to RSIEC. The ICT department housed the voter register.
“And voters register is in soft copy, and it is in two ways, either we give it to them in soft copy, we photocopy it both black and white and colored then we stamp certified true copy. But we have not given them. No register in our office will show that we have handed over such documents to them. But they have written.”
Regarding the court orders, Dr. Sinikiem stated that he has received only one court order from the INEC Headquarters in Abuja, and that of the Federal High Court order from Abuja directing compliance, but he is unaware of a separate state High Court order.
When questioned about the delay in issuing the voter register, Dr. Sinikiem “Well, it is administrative; it not that we withheld it, but when the RSIEC requests, they have to come for the processes, they have not come to conclude the processes before we got the court order.
“I have the one of the Federal High Court from Abuja which was sent to me by my headquarters directing me to comply with the court order. I have not seen another court order from the state High Court.” He said.
