Kumaila said the district team had already petitioned Inspector-General of Police and Director-General of State Security Services to investigate the matter, arrest those responsible for it and bring them to justice.
“We therefore call on you sir, to undertake an urgent and independent investigation into this matter, in order to fish out bad eggs from within the INEC administration who are hell bent on tarnishing the image of the electoral umpire,” he stated.
After losing the election to All Progressives Congress candidate Kaka Shehu Lawal, he filed a petition before the Election Petitions Tribunal in Maiduguri.
The politician noted that he subsequently obtained a court order to inspect the materials used for the election—including ballot boxes, ballots that had been filled out and some that were blank, as well as certified copies of results lists.
When contacted, INEC Head of Department (Voter Education and Publicity) in Maiduguri, Abba Liberty, directed journalists to the Borno Resident Electoral Commissioner.
“I am not in a position to respond. I think you should contact the Resident Electoral Commissioner. I have restrictions on what I can respond to please. That is the nature of my work and that is my stand,” he stated.
Kumaila, writing to INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu on March 24, alleged that it had almost been a month since the presidential and legislative elections (held February 25) but many results were still withheld from candidates, some ad hoc staff of the commission in Borno State were caught thumbprinting and stuffing ballot boxes within the premises of the Maiduguri INEC office.
He alleged that while his team of lawyers were undertaking the inspection of materials on Wednesday, March 22, 2023,They discovered that some INEC ad-hoc staff had sorted out, rearranged and counted ballot papers from different polling stations in Mafa, Kala Balge and Dikwa Local Governments.
The letter read in part, “Our inspectors immediately raised an alarm and accordingly reported the incident to the Borno State Resident Electoral Commissioner. They drew the attention of the REC to the implication of the actions of the Ad-Hoc staff, which amounted to tampering with evidence.
“The REC assured our team that the Ad-hoc Staff were only rearranging the documents that were dumped on them by the respective Local Government Electoral Officers who brought the materials from the local governments. Although we were not satisfied with the explanation, we gave them the benefit of the doubt and continued with the inspection".
