Nigeria: Keeping eyes on that election rigging video

Trends that wend and wane

Maybe it is unfair to suggest that we Nigerians are people of the moment with very short attention spans along with excitable responses to the sensational laced with a penchant for being critical and unsatisfied whilst being the most impatient with everyone else but ourselves.

The elections taking place in Nigeria this April will reveal a lot about the kind of people we are, the opportunities we have that might be squandered, the potential we have that might not be realised and the evidence we have that might never be properly processed.

Amazing evidence capture

This evening a video went viral on both Twitter and Facebook depicting the blatant rigging of the election where a lady was busy thumbing sheaves of ballot papers, another lady on the lookout and two men who evidently saw what was going on without much concern and the National Youth Service Corps member who for his impartiality was engaged as one of the INEC staff sat at a desk ensuring that the affront to our democracy was validated.

It is important to understand that despite the great cost of this electioneering process, the purpose of the registration exercise was to eliminate bogus registrants from the voters’ register, the job of conducting free and fair elections can only be facilitated, and it cannot be guaranteed only with technology or adequately policed by INEC without the help and support of the public.

The voting system that we experienced last Saturday represented a complete change to what we were used to, voters were encouraged to participate fully in the electoral process from the time of accreditation through to after the voters have been counted and the results pasted at the Polling Units.

More importantly, voters were given license to take their mobile devices to their Polling Units to record events, report situations and take pictures. In this case, the video recorded is even more compelling evidence that needs to be pursued to its fullest conclusion.

Get those people – Quick!

That conclusion should be identifying the location of that Polling Unit, identifying all the faces and people involved in that electoral fraud, determining who could have put them to that illegal activity and prosecuting all those involved to the fullest extent of the law.

It goes without saying that the votes from that Polling Unit must be excluded from the final results whilst further investigations need to be made of the ballot papers from the Senatorial District to examine with the thumbprints are unique or the same – there is every likelihood, if followed through, that the election will be nullified and the people given a second chance at electing who they really want to represent them.

Boredom sets in

Hours have passed since the video featured in a tweet as Nigerians have latched unto a new fad with the hash-tag #deprivednaijachildhood and found ways to link that to the #NigeriaDecides hash-tag with every need to apprehend those vote rigging crooks now a distant memory.

I posted a tweet that recalled the video for a moment - Hours ago the vote rigging video went viral, it is now forgotten for #deprivednaijachildhood, #NigeriaDecides we get bored easily.

The analysis is obvious

In any case, the video rigging video offers INEC and the law enforcement authorities a lot of evidence to work on which could be made easier with help from the public.

There are at least two clear faces on that video, someone must know who they are, what are their names and their addresses – they should be easy to apprehend with information from colleagues, friends, family, neighbours or the community. The video shows they intended to get away with this crime and it was done with impunity, the more the reason to nab these crooks and make an example of them.

The video is introduced with names of someone who appears to have benefitted from this fraud and another who appeared to have lost because of the fraud – I would say we jump to no conclusions on the matter but the names help narrow down the location where the video was recorded.

Narrowing it down

The candidates mentioned were Dr. Nomate Toate Kpea and Hon. Magnus Ngei Abe; they were contesting in the Rivers South Senatorial District with the identification SD/095/RV; that being the 95^th Senatorial District in Nigeria which covers the following Local Government Areas Andoni, Eleme, Gokana, Khana, Opobo/Nekoro, Oyigbo & Tai.

The Collation Centre for this Senatorial District is at Swanu-Finima Nwika Conference Hall in Bori.

The polling booth in which the rigging took place is labelled Unit 08 which means in one of those 7 Local Government Areas each of which is comprised of Registration areas there is a Polling Unit that ends with /008.

Maybe…

Obviously, JujuFilms Productions – a California-based company that uploaded the video unto YouTube might also have all that information and they can be contacted on info@JujuFilms.tv

If anything, it is important that these people be recused from any other electoral activity forthwith and it is incumbent on every Nigerian to ensure that we made the best use of our times at the Polling Units to report everything going on to prevent the blatant abuse of the electoral process by unscrupulous people.

As I finished this blog, I came across more evidence though not fully corroborated that gave names to the women involved in this activity. That evidence appears here.

A rewrite of this part

Taking out the inferences and allusions the evidence lead back to the YouTube origins of the video where JujuFilms Productions had posted another comment suggesting the lady in the red top whose face is quite clearly visible throughout the video is Baridi Naleloo, it states she is the PDP women’s leader of Ward 4 B-Dere and an employee of Gokana Local Government.

That is enough to match Unit 08 label on the Polling Booth to Ward 4 B-Dere in the Gokana Local Government of Rivers State and that gives us a PU Number of 32/12/04/008 located at C.P.S. I B-Dere, Giogon Boobana, Rivers State http://t.co/74QhKW8 with the description “The PU building is located at Gio-Gon Boobana Lebe square, B-Dere.”

The name given for the other lady whose is thumbing the ballot papers is Barivure, she is said to be an employee of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. Going through the staff roll, I found that the prefix Bari- was common but could find no Barivure, which might be that she is of a much junior cadre.

INEC simply have to pick Baridi Naleloo up and she will no doubt sing like a canary; as for the other names and relationships, along with the paymasters that sanctioned this criminality, they should all be corralled and made a public show of.

Having cobbled together the PU Number from all the information obtained, it all seems to check out in the Senatorial District Finder, it can be no coincidence that all the names on the video and everything else just fits snuggly together, almost too conveniently.

This matter must not rest! Over to you, INEC.

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Review VI - Report to Prevent Rigging

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review VI - Report to Prevent Rigging

Being aware of rigging opportunities

Giving some flesh to a tweet - @boosoolalab The problems could be efficiency, intimidation, access, bias and violence barring people from exercising their rights.

In some Twitter exchanges last night I was engaged in a conversation about the prospects for freer, fairer and more credible elections for the presidential office after the suggestion was made that the national Assembly elections were rigged.

Now, I quite strongly believe that theoretically the opportunities for rigging the elections are not as many as they once were but this can only be made sure with the full participation of Nigerians in the electoral process – the critical bit being witnessing, reporting and relaying those messages to as many credible organisations involved in the monitoring of the elections including INEC.

Know the deal

All voters need to be aware of the INEC Electoral Chain of Custody which shows exactly how INEC should conduct the proceedings at the Polling Units; what the Presiding Officers must do, what they must announce to the hearing of all assembled, what forms to fill in and what should be posted at the Polling Unit after the proceedings for the day are complete.

INEC has fervently encouraged citizen monitoring, asking voters to attend their Polling Units with their mobile devices to take pictures and report events to INEC and various other monitoring sites.

Every situation at the Polling unit is relevant to the reporting process, what can be expected can be found in the Nigeria: INEC Election Guidelines - Critical Information and from tweets published by the @inecNigeria Twitter account we get a general idea of how the election should be conducted Nigeria: A Primer on INEC Elections in April 2011.

They must be early

These are where opportunities for rigging might arise and should be thwarted.

All INEC personnel should and must have arrived at the Polling Units on the day of election before 08:00AM and have set up to start the accreditation process from 08:00AM until 12:00 noon.

Depending on the number of people to be accredited, there should not be over 300 per Polling Unit section to allow for all eligible voters to be processed by 12:00 noon.

Immediate reports should be made to INEC and other monitoring organisations where names of registered voters holding voter registration cards are not found in the Voters’ Register.

If everything is orderly, accreditation should be concluded by 12:00 noon, if that is not the case, no person can join the queue for accreditation after 12:00 noon – those who arrive for accreditation after noon automatically forfeit their rights to vote on that Election Day.

Just report it

Any confusion in any of the activities at the Polling Unit should be quickly identified and reported, if the situation is resolved update your reports just as those reports should be updated if the situation persists – probably every 30 minutes.

No voters should feel intimidated by INEC personnel, security personnel, party agents or any other persons at the Polling Unit – all such cases of intimidation should be reported.

There were reports last week of people being barred from accreditation if they did not pledge allegiance to a certain party, no one has any right to know your allegiance at the Polling Unit, where such bias is observed, report the incident. All eligible and registered voters at a Polling Unit should not be hindered from exercising their rights.

The ballot box when presented for voting at 12:30PM which is when voting should commence and no earlier should be visible and empty.

The Presiding Officer must announce the number of registered voters in the registered, the number of accredited persons that morning and then the number of accredited persons in the queue to vote at 12:30PM. The write this in the required forms – if this announcement is not heard, report the situation.

At voting

Each voter must not have more ballot papers than are necessary for the election, last week, it would have been two, this week for the presidential elections it must be just one ballot paper, the next election will be a minimum of two ballot papers for gubernatorial and state assembly elections and then ballot papers for the Senate or House of Representatives where the elections for those seats were postponed from the 9^th of April 2011.

When you vote and thumbprint the ballot paper ensure the ink is dry before you post your ballot paper in the ballot box.

If any voter is seen to post more than the required number of ballot papers in the ballot box, report the situation.

If any accredited voter who was counted in the queue to vote at 12:30PM does not have the opportunity to vote, report the situation.

See and hear everything

Once the queue of accredited voters has been through the voting process, no new voters can be accommodated no matter how early voting was concluded at a Polling Unit – the separation and counting of the ballots must commence immediately after the vote.

If the ballot box leaves sight of the assembled voters, report the situation.

The ballots must be separated in plain sight and audibly counted to the hearing of all assembled and then the tallied results announced and written into the respective forms all at the Polling Unit, if any of these steps are not followed, report the situation.

Then the number of used and unused ballots must be countered, announced and entered in the relevant form.

Take pictures and take them properly

The Statement of Results must be posted at the Polling Unit before the INEC personnel leave the Polling Unit and all assembled voters are at liberty to capture a picture of the posted results and report the same to INEC and other monitoring organisations.

Ensure the full page of the results is captured with details of the Polling Unit information, numbers of voters and the votes that each party has obtained, the picture captured could be used in evidence if electoral disputes arise, only the full page will pass muster when contested by law.

If anybody is barred from reporting events at their Polling Units, report the situation immediately.

Any suspicious situation at a Polling Unit is best reported immediately, it might come in useful when disputes or issues arise later on.

Most importantly, it is the alertness and vigilance of people at each Polling unit that will ensure the elections are free and fair, if order is maintained at the Polling Unit, middle-men will find it difficult to usurp and rig the elections because the results at the Polling Units are what will add up to the total tally of results announced for winners – INEC can return to each documented Polling Unit result or re-check and re-collate the numbers to ensure the will of the people is what wins over in the end.

Reference Notes & URLs

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review I

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review II - New Election Dates

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review III - Who votes on Saturday.

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IV - Part 1 to Voting

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review IV - Part II - We can

Nigeria: #NigeriaDecides Election Review V

To contact INEC

#NigeriaDecides: INEC incident reporting addresses: inec@yahoo.com, inec@gmail.com, inec@hotmail.com, inec@nigeria.org

Follow @inecnigeria, @EiENigeria, @reclaimnaija on Twitter if you are voting tomorrow. You will get useful alerts and information.

If you are tweeting about the elections, please use the hashtag #NigeriaDecides.

Send SMS Reports to INEC on these numbers 0816-666-2222, 0812-000-6622, 0809-666-2221.

Use these HOTLINES for incident reporting: 0707-0273-6781-9 (9 lines.)

General Election Information

Nigeria: A Primer on INEC Elections in April 2011

Nigeria: INEC Election Guidelines - Critical Information

Nigeria: Table of INEC Electoral Chain of Custody

Participate in monitoring

Reporting from your Polling Unit - ReVoDa | How it works

Submit a report as a monitor to ReclaimNaija – Click to Submit a Report

234Next.com Election Incident Reporting Site

Nigeria Elections Social Media Tracking Centre

Nigerian ballots probably in the air

The admission of flaws

The conversion of INEC into the Sultans of the Ballot and the Genies of the Vote continues apace.

Having had the President finally admit that there were flaws in the elections conducted last week is probably more a damage limitation exercise than one of sincere contrition.

It would appear some external pressure has been applied to make the government wake up to some stark realities which the President expressed in quite succinct words - The world is watching us and we cannot afford to disappoint ourselves, our friends and the world - indeed, we have all been watching how the vote that went in produced a tally of some other spurious count from which some pre-determined winner emerges, though like a fellow blogger noticed, those winners seem to go into hiding rather than come out to celebrate - Go figure!

Ballots are in the air

However, what leaves me breathless like I have just been punched violently in the belly is the response of the Chairman of INEC to the rumour that a truckload of ballot papers marked in favour of the ruling party had been seized.

Apparently, sorry, the reality is, the ballot papers needed to conduct the elections throughout the whole of Nigeria tomorrow are not yet in the country. Yes, the ballot papers are not yet in the country; they are being printed in South Africa after the outrageous politicking adventure of INEC came unstuck.

In fact, the Federal Government, earlier in the week had to release NGN 15 billion to INEC to help them handle this development which everyone but INEC knew would happen - I suppose the INEC budget had already been expended on other matters of graft and importuning than the conduct of elections.

So, INEC has just less than 24 hours to ensure that ballot papers reach the nether regions of the country such that the people have full access to the choices available which should include Atiku Abubakar, the current Vice President of Nigeria.

One can say, if the ballots have left South Africa already, then they would be in the air, just the reality of the elections being conducted with any level of professional ability would be welcome.

Candidates amiss

However, I predicted over a month ago that the Vice President's application to contest would probably be granted so late that some people would not have the choice of voting for him, allowing those whose names appear on the ballot to capture alternative preference votes, handing the Presidency to someone else, which would probably be the Healthy Sick-man from Katsina State - Umaru Yar' Adua.

The simple thing is that INEC whilst anticipating the fact that they might lose the battle to disqualify the Vice President, they did not have the contingency that the Chairman said was available to handle the eventuality that is now the current situation.

So, rather than postpone the election to ensure that all due processes for conducting free and fair elections are met, the polling booths would open two hours later on Saturday.

Only a forlorn miracle

From INEC's track record, if they had some polling booths opening 6 hours late or not at all last Saturday, having had all the time to adequately prepare, but wished for a miracle of efficiency rather than the effectiveness of proper planning; they cannot have improved enough to manage the logistical failures of last week in a better way for this weekend.

It is within this circumstance that we find Nigeria's true democracy sacrificed to the criminal mismanagement of the elections which would result in the lack of culpability for committing Nigeria to a possible state of disquiet, unrest and anarchy, just because INEC could not be bothered to do it right.

We probably should forget about counting the ballots and start counting on judges to make sure our votes count.

References

The INEC Blogs

INEC & OBJ might just get away with it

The perfect con

Herein is the error of our ways, and the non-vigilance of Nigerians that would make President Olusegun Obasanjo assume the mantle of "evil genius" from IBB.

Inadvertently, INEC let the cat out of the bag with an excuse that would leave many aghast with horror as the future of Nigeria is mortgaged on the megalomania of people who think our votes are to be trifled with being made of no significance.

About the issue of cases of ballot boxes being hijacked by hoodlums and unscrupulous politicians, INEC casts the blame on the security agencies.

The job of INEC is mainly to conduct elections as Philip Umeadi the INEC Commissioner for information says.

Mainly to conduct elections?

So how did they get involved in disqualifying candidates that their whole program is now in a mess they might now have to postpone the presidential elections?

How is it that polling stations were not open promptly in many locations?

How is that many observers deemed most of the voting activities as irregular, tainted and abused?

How is it that INEC did not realize that security is the most crucial element of conducting free and fair elections in Nigeria, that not only did they have to engage all arms of law enforcement, they had to ensure all materials in the conduct of the elections were secure and safe?

INEC basically was an organisation completely oblivious of its brief or something dangerously sinister is at play.

This is cop-out that beggars belief, did Obasanjo hire people who could perfect incompetence and pontificate such lame excuses to commit the greatest election crime in the world's largest black democracy and smartly get away with it? These are professional confidence tricksters hired to fix the elections and now pretending to be incompetent.

Methinks they might just get away with it; they might just get away with the disenfranchisement of Nigerians.