On Saturday, May 12, 2018, we set out to LEA Maiduguri Road, the school which has been the designated Collation Centre for Gaji ward in all the elections conducted since 1999. We went there to monitor the distribution of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and other election materials, to the polling officers (PO) and other Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (Kad-SIECOM) officials. As usual, polling agents of the various political parties and security officials were there to escort the SIECOM officials to the polling units.

On arriving at their various polling units, elections began immediately. Some polling officers had difficulties setting up the EVMs and had to call the attention of a senior SIECOM official to come and set up the machines. Eventually, all the EVMs deployed to all the polling units in Gaji ward functioned perfectly.

Electronic Voting Machines

The Electronic Voting Machines deployed by the state government are revolutionary. The machines were efficient, and there was no single breakdown in the ward I covered. Furthermore, the machines made the voting process easier, faster and difficult to tamper with the final outcome. As the voting processes came to an end, the machines printed each and every vote casted (including invalid votes), which were counted before the general public. The machines also printed the summary of the final outcome, what every party got and both SIECOM officials, the security and party agents signed on the printed result sheet.

That aside, the manual result sheet for every polling unit was presented by the POs, the results were written in figures and in words, all the party agents, SIECOM officials and the police signed on the manual result sheets.

I must commend Mallam Nasir el-Rufai for this development.

Collation Process

At the designated collation centre, the SIECOM officials together with the police and agents of the political parties returned with the Electronic Voting Machines and other election material for the collation process to begin. A SIECOM official with the title SPO was at the collation centre to collect the election materials she earlier distributed to the POs. With all the political parties having the results from various polling units before them, everybody knew his fate and we all waited at the collation centre, waiting for the announcement.

The SPO had earlier made it clear that she was not responsible for announcing the results. She pleaded with the masses to be patient and wait for the Returning Officer to return. The elections were concluded by4pmand by5pm, all the results from the polling units were available with the POs at the collation centre.

While waiting for the Returning Officer to come and announce the results, tensions got high. The SPO, who was the highest ranking SIECOM official made an attempt to leave the collation centre. However, the youths present stopped her from leaving, pending the arrival of the Returning Officer. At some point, the pressure on the SPO got high that she was forced to announce the result (on video).

I quickly called the attention of the youths that the announcement made by the SPO isinvalid,insisting thatSIECOMmust produce the Returning Officer,but the police entered and whisked away the SPO.

APC’s show of shame

While still at the collation centre, we noticed that all members of the APC had left the centre and abandoned the collation process. Suddenly, a WhatsApp post appeared which shows Hon Haruna Inuwa Dogo a.k.a Mabo, sending the Result Declaration Sheet to a WhatsApp group of APC stakeholders in Kaduna North. It is worth noting that at the collation centre, we summed up the results, and the entire votes casted were less than2,300: but according to APC magic, their candidate got a whopping9,302votes. We don’t know how Mabo, Samaila Suleiman andtheircohorts came up with these results.

It is no surprise that their candidate, Saleh Shuaibu, also got more than168,000 votes,despite the voter apathy, whilePresident Muhammadu Buhari, despite the large turnoutthat was recorded in2015general elections,was able to gather only 119,000 votes.This is despite the fact that some of the electorates relocated, some died and all the people that registered after the 2015 general elections were not eligible, because their names were not available in the register.

It became clear, the APC have no shame.

Our findings also revealed that what happened in Gaji ward was replicated throughout the 12 wards of the local government. I personally have been to Kabala, Shaba, Liman and Mai Buruji wards.No single Returning Officer was available at all the Collation Centres.They left us with our votes, our results, and manufactured their own.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the ‘Free and Fair’election conducted in Kaduna North Local Government.

•Muhammad Lawal writes from Kaduna and can be reached viame@dmalan.com