"I Was Used And Dumped"- INEC Anambra Official Who Was Arrested For Sabotage

An electoral officer, Okeke Chukwujekwu, in charge of Idemili North local government area of Anambra State, is currently in police detention over his role in the November 16, governorship election in the state.

A principal actor in the controversial election, Okeke made an eye opening revelation to his interrogators in Abuja.

Okeke  told the police investigators that although he had a hand in the flawed poll of the area he was assigned to, he did not do it alone and added that he was "being used and dumped".

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, had, in the heat of the controversies generated by the flawed poll, admitted that the "electoral officer" in Idemili North "messed up" and that he would be handed over to the police for prosecution.

Chukwujekwu was moved to Abuja on Sunday, just as INEC said it was conducting a probe into the deliberate sabotage of the governorship election.

A top official involved in the election confided in LEADERSHIP yesterday that the arrested INEC official had made useful statements even as he was apprehensive that top directors of INEC might be "implicated".

"The way this whole thing is going, it looks as if many heads will roll in INEC because the young man has made useful statements and if what he said is anything to rely upon, it then means that some big names in that commission might fall with him.

"At first, he was trying to rationalise his action in that local government area when he was verbally quizzed before the intervention of the police; but, after some time, especially at the point of his detention, he started to cooperate but the cooperation is loaded because he has mentioned some top officials of INEC, especially directors and a PDP chieftain, as those who 'put him in trouble'.

Although the source declined to disclose the identities of those involved, he said "preliminary confessions" point to the fact that the bungled election in most LGAs of the state was "packaged by aggrieved politicians in connivance with top INEC officials both in Abuja and Awka" adding: "It was a well-funded package."

"All fingers point to some aggrieved politicians and it was a well-funded package that involved quite a lot of people; that is why the man is saying he has been used and dumped," he said.

Meanwhile, Jega has said all enquiries regarding arrests made in the bungled Anambra election should be referred to the police.

Jega's chief press secretary, Kayode Idowu, told LEADERSHIP on the telephone that INEC would not comment on the arrested official who allegedly played a key role in the flawed poll.

"One, I cannot say anything on his matter because the police has taken over a larger chunk of the matter; only the police can say something on the role of the man arrested and how far they have gone with their investigation; so you have to contact the police.

"Again, it will be out of place for me to reel out what the commission intends to do. Mind you, INEC is also carrying out its administrative interrogation on his matter," he said.