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Maurice Iwu Lies Exposed-Presidential ballot papers still in South Africa-The PUNCH

February 1, 2008
Nine months after the presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission is yet to freight to Nigeria the 1.7 million presidential ballot papers it abandoned in South Africa.


Findings by SUNDAY PUNCH showed that the consignment was still trapped in South Africa.

A top official of the commission, who did not want to be named, told our correspondents on Friday in Abuja that the abandoned ballot papers had been left to rot at the warehouse of the South African printers.

He said, after the elections, the commission felt there was no need to bother about the ballot papers left behind with the printers.

The source, who alleged that the amount spent on printing the ballot papers had remained a highly guarded secret, said the relevant officials were kept in the dark in the award of the controversial printing contract.

The official said, ”Some of us who should know were not carried along in the award of the contract for the printing of the fresh ballot papers.

”Until last week when documents surfaced at the tribunal, most of us did not know the contract sum and the arrangement with the printers.

”That is why some of us, who should be defending the elections, have been quiet. What do you expect us to be saying when most of the things that happened were kept secret from us?

”Can you believe it that 1.7 million of the presidential ballot papers we printed in South Africa are yet to be brought back?

”Some of us have suggested that since we paid for the cost of printing and freighting, there was need to bring the documents home. But nobody listened to us.”

The commission had admitted on April 29, 2007 that it left 1.7 million presidential ballots behind in South Africa.

INEC‘s National Commissioner in charge of Publicity, Mr. Phillip Umeadi, had told journalists at a press conference that some ballot papers printed for the presidential elections were abandoned at a South African warehouse because they were in excess of what the aircraft could carry.

He explained that the commission ordered 65 million ballot papers, but that the South African printers produced 66 million of the document.

He said out of the figure printed, a consignment of 64.3 million of the document was delivered to the electoral body, a quantity he said was in excess of what the commission needed for the presidential election.

The commissioner, however, claimed that the excess one million ballot papers produced by the printers could not be counted among those his commission left behind.

”What they delivered to us were 64.3 million ballot papers and this is documented. What were left behind in South Africa were just 700,000 ballot papers. And they were left behind because they were in excess of what the aircraft could carry,” Umeadi had explained.

The commissioner could not be reached for comments on Friday as repeated calls to his mobile phone indicated that it had been switched off.

But the commission‘s Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Segun Adeogun, denied that the commission ever admitted that it left some ballot papers in South Africa.

He said, ”I am not aware that the commissioner said we left some ballot papers in South Africa. He must have been quoted out of context.”

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