Rig and go to jail, Niger SIEC tells returning officers

Dipo Laleye, Minna - 25.03.2008

In attempt to make the local government election slated for Saturday fraud-free, the Niger State Independent Electoral Commission has said that any returning officer who released wrong results during the election would be sent to jail for three years without an option of fine.

The commission also said anybody found disrupting the elections would be liable to a fine of N100,000 or 12 months imprisonment on conviction.

The chairman, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Bosso, told the Nigerian Tribune in an interview in Minna on Monday that the commission was determined to conduct a hitch-free election and, therefore, warned all those who would be involved to be transparent and honest as anybody who tried to serve as a cog in the wheel of progress would be dealt with.

Alhaji Bosso, who said the commission had commenced the distribution of non-sensitive election materials to all the 25 local government areas of the state under a tight security, assured that the sensitive materials would arrive the various polling units before the commencement of voting on Saturday.

According to him, 11,874 ad-hoc workers had been recruited and trained for the election which would hold in 3,188 polling units.

Alhaji Bosso said the conduct of the election would cost the commission over N250 million, an amount, he said, the government had released.

The chairman said the government had also assisted the electoral body with six pick-up vans and two trucks, in addition to 25 tricycles, otherwise known as Keke Talban.

He said 14 political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), the Accord Party and the Action Congress (AC), would participate in the election.