{"id":368153,"date":"2011-04-05T00:09:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T00:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-%e2%80%98missing%e2%80%99-ballot-papers\/"},"modified":"2011-04-05T00:09:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T00:09:00","slug":"inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"116\">\n<p><span>Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru Jega recovered yesterday from the shock of the elections cancellation to begin the seemingly complex but necessary task of finding out how it all went haywire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He told the staff to sit up and ordered the arrest of an Electoral Officer in Osun State over \u201cmissing\u201d ballot papers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Jega, Resident Electoral Commissioners, Heads of Operations and ICT Units in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory will meet today in Abuja to audit the ballot papers disbursed last Saturday before the polls shift.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The National Assembly elections were shifted after electoral materials failed to arrive in many states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Shortly after the postponement of the elections, the Electoral Officer (EO) could not account for the ballot papers in his care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It was gathered that the officer, who was deployed in Osun State from Ondo State, claimed that he had burnt the ballot papers, including some that had been thumb-printed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But, it was learnt, the EO could not identify where the ballot papers were burnt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A source in the commission said Jega told the staff to either sit up or be fired.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cTo demonstrate his readiness to deal with erring official, Jega has ordered immediate arrest of an Electoral Officer in Osun State over disappearance of some ballot papers. The EO said the ballot papers were used last Saturday and he has burnt them,\u201d the source said, adding:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cBut he purportedly \u2018burnt\u2019 the ballot papers without authority from the Resident Electoral Commissioner whom he is responsible to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThere was a strong suspicion that the affected ballot papers, especially the unused ones, might have been diverted at the prompting of some politicians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe EO, who has been detained in Osogbo, is being investigated by the police. From preliminary investigation, the ballots might have been diverted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The development has forced Jega to call today\u2019s meeting, which will be devoted to: \u2022review of how things went wrong last Saturday; \u2022comprehensive audit of all the ballot papers issued before the postponement of the elections; and \u2022the number of ballots used and unused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cJega and all our leaders are meeting on how to get it right this time around. Any failure again on Saturday could make or break the entire polls. We won\u2019t allow any slip again,\u201d the source said, adding: \u201cFrom the experience of the EO in Osun, the INEC chairman, the RECs, and other officials will take stock of all ballots disbursed and the mop up exercise carried out so far.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAt least, the figures must tally or else some ballots might still be in circulation by now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAlso, if there is any shortfall as a result of ballots already thumb printed, INEC can make up accordingly before the general elections begin again on Saturday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Another issue to be discussed today is the 774 EOs non-adherence to the guidelines of the commission that a queue of voters in any polling unit should not be more than 300.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAnd it was regrettable that we had a long queue of 1,000 to 1,500 last Saturday. This is a major challenge we will address today,\u201d said the source, who pleaded no to be named.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>View original post here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thenationonlineng.net\/web3\/news\/32841.html\" title=\"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru Jega recovered yesterday from the shock of the elections cancellation to begin the seemingly complex but necessary task of finding out how it all went haywire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru Jega recovered yesterday from the shock of the elections cancellation to begin the seemingly complex but necessary task of finding out how it all went haywire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-05T00:09:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/\"},\"wordCount\":541,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/\",\"name\":\"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-05T00:09:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru Jega recovered yesterday from the shock of the elections cancellation to begin the seemingly complex but necessary task of finding out how it all went haywire","twitter_image":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers","datePublished":"2011-04-05T00:09:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/"},"wordCount":541,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/","name":"INEC official arrested over \u2018missing\u2019 ballot papers - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg","datePublished":"2011-04-05T00:09:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/05\/inec-official-arrested-over-missing-ballot-papers\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/0dff754fthumbnail.php_33.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}