INEC Suspends 2 Electoral Officers Over Alleged Manipulation Of Osun Governorship Poll

     

Two Electoral Officers who supervised the last governorship election in Osun state have been suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC over alleged electoral fraud during the exercise.

The suspended officers according to reliable sources are messres Fabunmi F.T and Esinoye A.O who were said to have allegedly colluded with the All Progressive Congress APC to manipulate electoral process in favour of the party in Osogbo and Obokun local government councils respectively.

Credible sources at the INEC headquarters in Osogbo, told our correspondent that the “development is the outcome of preliminary investigation by the INEC National Commissioners, who were deployed by the commission to supervise the August 9 governorship election in Osun”.

According to one of the sources, who pleaded for anonymity on the matter said, “the two Electoral Officers are suspended to create enough room for thorough investigation into electoral offences leveled against them. After the investigation must have been concluded, appropriate legal action if need be would commence to punish them for the misdemeanor”.

“The two affected officers were part of EOs that participated in the distribution and collection of sensitive electoral materials in Osogbo and Obokun local governments during the August 9, 2014 gubernatorial election. They were accused of allegedly selling blank ballot papers to the APC and manipulating form EC8 Series to favour APC, voiding PDP votes “, the source added.

When contacted the INEC National Commissioner, who supervised the election, Ambassador Mohammed Wali confirmed the development, saying that the two affected EOs are currently under suspension, pending the outcome of investigation into issues raised against them.