The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has started moving ballot papers used during the 2015 elections to the six zonal offices of the commission where they are to be destroyed, a report by the Nigerian Tribune has revealed.
It was gathered that the commission would destroy 200 million copies of the ballot papers printed abroad in late 2014 and which cost the country N9bn.
The ballot papers were produced abroad despite calls for different quarters for the ballot papers to be locally produced under the administration of Professor Attahiru Jega which were rebuffed as Jega and his key officials insisted on the need to properly secure the items.
Sources claim the move to destroy the ballots were as a results of complaints by some Nigerians during Jega’s tenure who said the papers should be produced locally to save cost and reduce flight cause.
The report alleged that INEC bigwigs told Jega that the commission should print ballots locally and printers be placed on stand-by, instead of printing all the needed copies whether rerun holds or not.
Despite the pleas, Jega awarded contracts worth N6 billion to foreign firms and another N3 billion for the component of the papers printed locally.
A source said:“What happened was that the commission printed all the ballot papers meant for use at a go. It printed 75 million copies for presidential election, another of the same volume for possible rerun and there is a balance of five per cent on each volume. The same was done for all the other elections –Senate, House of Representatives, governorship and state House of Assembly.
“What happens is that the commission eventually used less than 20 per cent of the printed ballot papers and then there is excess ballot papers everywhere.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the alarm that the excess ballot papers were congesting its stores and the commission had to start moving them to the zonal offices.
“The ballots set aside to be burnt are the excess copies printed for rerun and those that were not used during the elections. Any moment from now, they will be burnt.”
However, Director of Publicity and Voter Education of INEC, Mr Oluwole Ozeze Uzzi, denied the reports, instead saying: “That cannot be true. We don’t have excess papers”
During the 2015 elections, there were different reports that claimed some ballot papers had been imprinted upon even before the election days.
One such occasion occurred when five ad hoc officials of INEC participating in the Imo state governorship re-run polls were arrested for thumb-printing ballot papers as the elections were ongoing.
Another occurred when three members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who served as ad-hoc staff during the April 11 Governorship and House of Assembly election in Edo State were arrested for allegedly selling ballot papers and other sensitive materials.
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