Thought Picnic: The hold of that thing that brings grief

The man

It is with sadness that one reports the news that a respected guiding light and a father figure, someone who had assumed a fatherly influence over others finds himself sent to jail [1] for 8 months for offences of the flesh.

Before I begin to sound sanctimonious, it is important to address some serious matters that people in similar circumstances will do well to take heed off.

The said religious leader who has a very respectable following as well as the commendation of his peers that he sits on boards of their organisations in the UK and abroad has lived with that thing that he has battled with years.

The struggle

He might have hoped to insulate himself by aversion therapy by being married, having children and building an institution that thrives on the promotion of family values and some apparently succeed.

It however does not mean that thing is in volcanology terms extinct, in his case, it was dormant and occasion presented itself for the mountain to rumble, maybe the earth did move and one cannot say for sure if the volcano itself did become active, but you do get the idea that I do not have to develop the analogy any further before this blog needs to be rated.

A volcano remains a volcano whatever state it might be in, one might expect over time certain circumstances might allow for the awesomeness of the volcano to exhibit itself.

It would appear that the man succumbed at various times to his weakness and might have by reason of his office and leadership imposed himself on others who could not effectively resist his advances and he sought his inordinate pleasures.

The abuses

Now, there is nothing wrong with adults seeking the pleasure and company of each other for sexual satisfaction, it is then a matter of consent and willingness – we should not as adults be ashamed to be engaged in things that adults do consensually amongst themselves, that is why we are adults.

Adults however have responsibilities, they have authority, they could be role models and they might be looked upon for guidance by trusting non-adults.

In this case, an adolescent was fondled and it appears that experience completely traumatised him that it seemed to affect many productive spheres of his young life.

In the other case, a man though under the authority of this man appears to have been persistently inappropriately touched in what was a classic situation of a breach of trust.

It would appear the man had form since there were eight allegations in all and not all those affected were persuaded enough to give their statements to the police.

That thing

It goes without saying that “that thing” despite the case of being violated carries a stigma in a community that is willingly illiberal, stridently intolerant and scripturally schooled in vile homophobia.

The fact is people do struggle with their sexuality and many more than we all care to acknowledge, some suppress their urges but my volcanology analogy should be kept in mind; some find some expression for it living double lives on the “down-low”; others embrace their lot and get on with their lives; that is a fact of life.

What cannot be condoned and hence making this sad story a case of justice is where people try to find expression secretly by the abuse of minors and hope that the weight of their office will keep the act concealed.

Who we are

There is in fact no substitute to just being who you are, accepting who you are and dealing with it; a failure to accept who you are would almost always bring you to grief with grave and possibly shameful consequences.

What could have been could have been different – it does not make the ministry of the man to the time of his accusation any less valid and of value to those who enjoyed his spiritual guidance and tutelage.

At the end of this sorry saga, a man of God is first a man with all his weaknesses then of God seeking strength to help manage his frailties.

It would be a test of Christian love for the church to help rehabilitate the victims and be ready to welcome back their leader when his time is done; that test, many a church has failed.

The hold of “that thing” continues to have its hold and it does not necessarily have to be homosexuality, everyone has something that is “that thing” to them – we are only human.

Sources

[1] Evangelical pastor Odulele sentenced for sex offences - Channel 4 News

Other references

About Glory House

The UK: Child Sexual Abuse in Nigerian Communities

Thought Picnic: Debunking the myth of the man of God

Pompeii: When debates deserve rebates

Doing absurd with excellence

Shakespeare gave us A Comedy of Errors and it was bettered with the Absurdity of Farce yet to be scripted into a play today.

There is a place where when they do absurd they excel beyond compare and the incredulity of it all left us gobsmacked and the world found the laughing stock of the evening either to make the headlines or to be ignored as a non-event.

He followed each time someone who won the spoils and later stepped in twice the accidental leader of the pack never having faced the count himself for what he could do.

Endowed with absence

Regaled in the emperor’s robes, he sways and swaggers with pomp and pageantry bringing along the highest honours of the logic of the zoo, putting primates in their place in what someone inferred was a tome so thick and grandly titled Strategies for backing out of an silverback tussle.

For when the cages shook and they beat their chests in the jungle climbing to the highest branch and balancing on a twig without falling with a crash to earth he sat in a tub of faux-bananas so endowed each bite expelled air that showed the trick of balloons filled with helium.

The rumble continued and one, maybe two could not be counted in the colony, the bush giving covering to the timid of sorts. The juveniles came and made sounds to our amusement one needed a didgeridoo for the North of the reserve left him bereft of the calls of the common.

Empty plinths are three

The day came and I felt like I have visited a heritage site with 4 plinths and on one was placed the statue like a plan for a great park that floundered because the patron ran out of money.

The curator attempted to make the visitors pay to view 4 amazing works of art when only one was hung for all to see – absurd, they cried, livid with rage, this we will not debate on, we want a rebate.

We moved as if from plinth to plinth though everything was about the only mounted plinth, the guide attempted to talk about all whilst addressing only one.

The boredom of heard again

The work was nothing of the art we expected but the multitude of words flowed as each aspect of its production was explained and we never fully got the detail before another stage was talked about.

Interminable verbosity had bored the audience to death but an undistinguished work of art exhibited by someone who pretends to genius will attract fools masquerading as aficionados knowledgeable with all faults.

The matters that really mattered never became the matter as the obsequious tamed genuflecting deliveries of softballs – a monologue, one said; a soliloquy did another and if one competes against oneself the winner might just be the very hard choice of oneself.

With that came a prize and so the farce for the record became a page of history.

Nigeria: A Robbery ReTweeted and Reported

A robbery ReTweeted

I was engaged on one of my usual late night Twitter conversations when a ReTweet appeared announcing a robbery taking place at a Lagos suburb address, it appeared desperate – in fact, any robbery in Lagos is desperately a matter of life and death.

As I experienced some 23 years ago, we were at the mercy of callous and ruthless armed men who went about in groups of 10 or more and had no compunction about shooting any of their victims, if it so caught their fancy.

One could well imagine either the victim sending the Tweet or someone witnessing the event from somewhere else; in either case, it would appear the person could not call the police.

We conversed about getting the phone numbers to the police stations and opined about the non-availability of toll-free easy-to-remember numbers; in the end we obtained a number of 11-digit phone numbers shared on Twitter and eventually some easy-to-remember toll-free numbers 767 & 999 that could be called within Lagos that were found to be working.

Call from anywhere

Meanwhile, one of my Twitter conversants called the police and reported the incident, they at first did not know the address but after a clearer description of the location they said they will “detail” (Nigerianese for instruct) to attend to the situation.

This was thanks to a Google search for the address and the indication of some landmarks. It goes without saying that our Nigerian cities need to have postcode identification amongst other signifiers to help agencies locate places easily.

Living in the Netherlands, I first felt I would not be taken seriously if I called but I eventually did call the Lagos Police Emergency Number which was 002347055462708.

Acting on it already

Someone at the station picked up the phone and I introduced myself as a caller from Holland, which surprised them as I gave them the information that there was a robbery reported on the Internet that needed attending to.

I was passed on to another officer who first asked if I had called earlier, I hadn’t; but I was informed, it transpired they had already been called (this, I think would be the call they received earlier), they now knew where the problem was and he told me the police official in charge of that location had been detailed to visit the address with a troop of police officers.

They seemed to be confident of what they were doing and I thanked them for seeing to the situation.

One can only hope that despite the trauma of the victims of the robbery the robbers do get caught and the victims are OK after their ordeal.

Usefulness of social media

For those who have pooh-poohed the usefulness of Twitter for anything especially in Nigeria, I would hope that this inspires people of the possibilities; starting with the presence of mind to Tweet an event through to the interest of others to act on the information received with the hope that something can be done.

In this case, I believe the police received at least two phone calls about an event and if anything, they would have been geared up to deal with the situation, promptly and with dispatch.

With the elections coming up in April 2011, every social media tool along with mobile phones should be employed in ensuring we have free, fair, transparent and honest elections – it will only happen if we all get involved, the people on the ground reporting and others disseminating and sharing the detail with others who can act on the situation or crisis.

With regards to the elections you need to go to ReVoDa | How it works we have the tools, it is time to use them to our best advantage especially in sticky situations.

Thought Picnic: Making choices at difficult times

A time for choices

When faced with stark realities, there are choices that need to be made and the passage of time required to ensure that the choice that is made brings forth the benefit expected.

As you consider and ponder, you wonder and each minute counts to the hour and each hour counts to the day and each day counts to the week and you find the decision has not been made for you to take advantage of the choices you had in the beginning.

You begin to wish every time you had that initial inspiration it was refined enough for you to act on immediately rather than be driven by prevailing circumstances to respond to at some inconvenience.

Making the choice

Everything is however a process, some need spontaneity others need some serious introspection, maybe rumination and discussion leading to a sense of conviction and consequently the confidence to take a particular path.

You pray silently that you always have the means to think right and act wisely when you are at that stage where the future is cloudy, your options are fuzzy and whichever direction you take might well determine the rest of your life.

I can say we regularly come to that stage and hope that age has not wearied the kind of decisiveness that helped the directions you chose before – I am probably too young to be having these kinds of reflection though this is useful enough to realise that change is the only way to remain relevant and it begins now.

Nigeria: Know your inalienable voter's rights

You have a great responsibility

As the first of the three consecutive election weekends in Nigeria arrives on the 2^nd of April 2011, never has it been more the duty and responsibility of Nigerians to ensure that their express wishes at the ballot box are transparently, fairly, honestly and truthfully represented in the results that are announced in all the elections they participate in.

Following the notices that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disseminated to the public through their website, on social media sites as Twitter and at press conferences, it is incumbent on every Nigerian to be aware of their rights as they exercise their constitutional rights to vote in their representatives and governments.

Get informed

Your first source of information is the INEC website [1], the guidelines they issued [2] regarding the elections have been condensed into a blog with related sites to help you understand what will happen on Election Day.

The @inecnigeria Twitter account posted a number of tweets that have been collated into a blog at NigeriansTalk.Org as a primer on the elections [3], the paper trail of how the results of the elections will be announced by Presiding Officers at the Polling Unit, the Registration Area, the Local Government Area, the State Level and at the Federal Level by the Chief Electoral Officer is documented in the blog that shows the INEC Electoral Chain of Custody [4].

Beyond vigilance, Nigerians must protect their votes and this starts by knowing their rights, all derived from all the guidelines given by INEC.

Your rights at the Polling Unit

It is the right of every Nigerian to help ensure the independence and impartiality of INEC is protected, guaranteed and enforced to the full by participation in the electoral process.

It is the right of every registered voter to be at their Polling Unit on Election Day from when it opens for accreditation at 08:00AM until when the results of the vote at that Polling Unit are published and posted at that Polling Unit.

All accredited voters are entitled by right and by encouragement of INEC to visit their Polling Units with their mobile devices and use them freely at their Polling Units. (This invalidates, countermands and renders illegal the atrocious warning [5] of the Inspector General of Police.)

Avail yourselves of the ReVoDa Voter Monitoring System [6] to report events at your Polling Unit.

It is the right of every accredited Nigerian voter to vote according to their persuasion, their conscience, their conviction and never under duress or inducement by any politician, religious or tribal leader or for compensation.

It is the right of every accredited Nigerian voter to use their vote wisely, the people we elect in April with run the country for the next four years, their decisions will affect our lives at home and abroad, our future, our prospects, our progress, our economy, our livelihoods and much more – ensure the party that has your endorsement at the ballot box can and will affect your life as a Nigerian for the better.

If you have doubts or have questions that have not been properly addressed today, endeavour to research and appreciate who really can deliver the Nigerian vision you have.

The INEC Official is chief

The most senior Nigerian Official at any accredited Polling Unit and all the collation centres is the INEC official; security agents answer to the INEC official and that INEC official controls all the activities that help in the smooth running of the electoral process relying on the support of INEC assistants and the law enforcement duties of security agents under the order and control of that INEC official.

The INEC official should ensure all activities are transparent to the accredited monitors, the assembled and accredited voters, the security agents and the party agents.

Law enforcement personnel are subject to INEC on electoral matters

All law enforcement personnel when it pertains to the electoral process are answerable to the designated INEC official at that location and they shall not act outside the remit and authority of the INEC official during the whole electoral exercise.

It goes without saying that the Inspector General of Police is also answerable to the authority of INEC when it pertains to electoral matters on all Election Days at all INEC designated electoral premises throughout the federation.

The function of law enforcement is to maintain peace and order as well as facilitate the ability for Nigerians to observe the conduct of free, fair, honest and transparent elections.

One function of law enforcement personnel on Election Days is to enforce the restrictions on vehicular movement and unauthorised travel.

INEC and law enforcement with their weight of responsibility are at the service of the people of Nigeria NOT the other way round.

2011 is the now; this is the time you have to make a difference with your vote.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS IN 2011 and refuse to let your rights be infringed by anyone in the April Elections.

Sources

[1] INEC Nigeria

[2] Nigeria: INEC Election Guidelines - Critical Information

[3] Nigeria: A Primer on INEC Elections in April 2011 | NigeriansTalk

[4] Nigeria: INEC Electoral Chain of Custody

[5] April polls: Soyinka slams IGP over use of cell phones

[6] ReVoDa | How it works

A small world of uncanny reunions

A ticket to Lancaster

Looking at the scales of maps online you imagine the large expanse of land and water that makes up the earth; the seemingly close friends, acquaintances and colleagues who appear to be a few inches away in cartography are not so much a walk away but further and it takes time to travel as the passage of time ekes out years of the last time your paths cross until a certain day.

One certain day, as I boarded a train to Euston to Lancaster, a couple sat in front of me became part of the idle banter that becomes engaging conversation once you know the journey would be long and boring without talk.

They had brought their own drinks onto the train rather than buy the over-priced and usuriously marked-up drinks on the drinks trolley that got wheeled through the carriages.

The conversation started with my appreciating their smarts in having had the choices a store offers over a train trolley and what situations I used to endure on the trains from Ipswich where I lived then to Liverpool Street.

I know your daddy

It transpired that they lived in Ipswich; that was quite interesting and so the conversation developed as she being Caucasian which should not have mattered asked where I was from and the usually trotted out line came with the refrain – of Nigerian parents.

To which she responded she was born in Nigeria and the dots seemed to join up in what would have been the surreal to both her husband and her; in the inquisitive, I wondered if she was born in Jos to which she responded in the affirmative and it was a slam dunk from there on end as I confidently said I suppose her father and mine worked for the same company and even offered the name of her father.

As she composed herself, I told her of a conversation I had with her father some 21 years before in Rayfield, Jos in Nigeria where I had asked where she was and I was told she had returned to the United Kingdom – her father, sadly had since died.

On a train that was going all the way to Scotland, it was strange to realise they would also be getting off at Lancaster and going off to a village just a few miles from where I would be spending Christmas – it was such an uncanny moment.

An invite from church

A few weeks ago at church I got formally introduced to a couple I never fully identified with having the assumption they were from another part of Africa until they spoke to other friends in a Nigerian language I understood.

We were then invited for a get together at theirs in two weeks and that set the stage for the meeting we had on Saturday.

I was picked up and we drove up to North Holland to well-appointed detached house in an idyllic village.

The ladies occupied themselves in the kitchen as we chatted in the living room about all the general topics that range from the serious to the trivial.

The wonderful sumptuous meal of pounded yam, beef and chicken stew and cow leg spinach soup was served and we tucked in ravenously almost exceeding the allowances of our appetites.

To a place born

The conversation swayed back and forth about the Yoruba language, the issues of culture, traditions and myths and it got to where we were born.

She said she was born in Birmingham more in terms of it being the biggest known city in the West Midlands and I surprised said I was born in Walsall which just happened to be where she was born. I got transferred by reason of premature birth to the hospital where she was born just within 2 years of my birth.

Her mum knows mine

That being within the time my parents were residents in Walsall, it was possible mine knew hers and just before I completed the sentence about the social club I felt our mothers were members of she offered the name.

Joining the dots was easy from then on, our fathers are both accountants, I am familiar with her maiden name and other names that came up just showed that our paths had crossed in England in the 60s, in Nigeria in the 80s and now in the Netherlands in 2011 in the most unlikely place for a coincidence to become a happenstance.

The world is a small place by reason of the people we met before and who we meet again or through others who know them so well – you cannot run away from the world in which you have lived. Uncanny!

Nigeria: INEC Electoral Chain of Custody

Fingerprints just eliminate duplicates

As the Nigerian elections approach in April, much has been made of the opportunity of voters to become fully engaged in the democratic process. In the January and February over 73 million Nigerians registered to vote and by offering fingerprint scanning as part of their registration profiles INEC was able to eliminate over 800,000 multiple registrations.

This presents the idea that the voters register contains uniquely identified voters and those who appear to have registered in combinations of multiple places with multiple names would have been caught by the system and eliminated from the system preventing the case of people having the opportunity to vote twice in the same election.

That however is the extent of the usefulness of the fingerprint element of the voter registration profile as we are informed that the accreditation process that lasts from 08:00AM to 12 noon on each Election Day will not involve verifying [1] the identification of voters against their recorded fingerprints.

This raises a number of concerns that I would broadly categorise under the term Chain of Custody of the Electoral Process. Chain of Custody [2] in legal terms refers to the complete paper trail that pertains to the handling of evidence. I have tabulated the INEC Chain of Custody.

The INEC Electoral Guidelines

Reviewing the INEC Guidelines for the General Elections in April 2011 [3] there appears to be a very important paper trail managed by the Presiding Officer of the Polling Unit from the moment the person collects all the materials needed to resource the Polling Unit through to handing over results to the Collating Officer at the Registration Area Centre, then to a similarly titled person at the Local Government Collation Centre and on to the State Returning Officer and finally to the Chief Electoral Officer of Federation.

This whole process needs to be both meticulous and transparent with each handover within that chain prone to undue influence that monitors and agents at each stage of the process need to be vigilant, alert, aware and scrupulous in their duties.

Voters can only participate in the monitoring process as far as what happens in at their Polling Units beyond which the paper trail and accredited observers along with the law enforcement agents are the custodians of clean, fair and transparent electoral exercise.

Within the guidelines, I have counted 8 different forms that need to be filled in as part of the Chain of Custody that would ensure free and fair elections.

The Presiding Officer

Form EC.25B – Electoral Materials Receipt Form (Handler – Presiding Officer)

This is a checklist that the Presiding Officer needs to painstakingly go through to ensure all electoral materials issued to the Polling Unit are of the right type and quantity (This would pertain to the ballot papers to cater for the number of expected voters and for that specific election as well as indelible ink to mark the index finger of each accredited voter’s left hand). Every page of the Voters’ Register needs to be inspected to ensure all the pages are signed, stamped with the INEC stamp and that no pages are missing.

Form EC 8A – Statement of Result (Handler – Presiding Officer)

After the accreditation of voters between 8:00AM and 12 noon the Presiding Office first enters in words and figures the number of voters in the Register and the number of accredited voters for that day on the form.

Then all accredited voters are invited to queue up to vote allowing for cultural issues of gender separation if necessary. Everyone in the queue is counted and the Presiding Officer announces loudly to the hearing of all present the number of accredited voters in the queue. Note that this could be different from the number of accredited voters for that day, it can never be more but it could be less, if voters decide to leave the Polling Unit before voting.

That number of accredited voters waiting in the queue is then entered in Form EC 8A, the Presiding Officer signs the appropriate section and the polling agents are invited to sign too.

After voting, the ballots are separated and collated per political party and then counted out loudly for each political party in alphabetical order.

The votes counted

The number of votes scored for each candidate is entered in Form EC 8A in the space provided both in words and figures. The tally of counted votes must never exceed the number of accredited voters counted in the queue and this must be doubled checked and verified.

If the number of votes scored for each candidate exceeds the number of accredited voters waiting in the queue as entered in the form, the result is nullified. In the appropriate place Form EC 8A is endorsed as follows: “Result Cancelled”.

The nullified result is then announced to the hearing of all assembled and present. (I cannot predict the consequences of such an announcement.)

Whatever the result, the Presiding Officer signs and one party agent from each of the represented political parties is invited to sign the completed Form EC 8A – Statement of Result Form.

A copy of the duly completed and signed Form EC 8A is given to each party agent and the security agents and posted at the Polling Unit.

The Presiding Officer accompanied by security agents and the party agents gives the original copy of Form EC 8A – Statement of Result to the Collation Officer at the Registration Area Centre.

All election materials signed for in Form EC.25B – Electoral Materials Receipt Form are then returned to the Electoral Officer through the Supervisory Presiding Officer for preservation and possible referencing if disputes arise.

The chain of custody then passes to the Registration Area Collation Officer who receives the original Form EC 8A – Statement of Result Form from all the Presiding Officers within that Registration Area.

The Registration Area Collation Officer

Form EC 8B – Registration Area Statement of Result (Handler – Registration Area Collation Officer)

The Registration Area Collation Officer collates all results submitted in Form EC 8A presented by the Presiding Officers of all Polling Units in that Registration Area and enters these into Form EC 8B.

Form EC40G – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified (Handler – Registration Area Collation Officer)

The Registration Area Collation Officer will entered the details of elections nullified in a Polling Unit by a Presiding Officer in Form EC40G, elections that did not hold in their respective Polling Units will also be duly entered in Form EC40G.

After the results per candidate in the Registration Area are called out loudly, Registration Area Collation Officer will sign Form EC 8B and then invite each candidate or party agent to sign the form. A refusal of the agents to sign the form will not invalidate the election results.

A copy of Form EC 8B is then given to each party agent, the security agents, the electoral officer and posted at the Registration Area Centre

The chain of custody then passes to the Local Government Collation Officer who receives the original Form EC 8B – Registration Area Statement of Result from all the Registration Area Collation Officers within that Local Government Collation Area and if available the original Form EC40G – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified.

The Local Government Collation Officer

Form EC 8C – Local Government Area Statement of Result (Handler – Local Government Collation Officer)

The Local Government Collation Officer collates all results submitted through the Form EC 8B by the Registration Area Collation Officers into Form EC 8C of all Registration Areas that make up the Local Government Area which is also a Federal Constituency.

Form EC40G1 – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified at Local Government Level (Handler – Local Government Collation Officer)

If any Form EC40G is submitted, the details are documented in the Form EC40G1

The Local Government Collation Officer will then announce the fully collated results from the Form EC 8C and then sign the form and invite the party agents to sign the form. A refusal of the agents to sign the form will not invalidate the election results.

A copy of Form EC 8C is then given to the candidates or their representative, a copy to the Resident Electoral Officer through the Electoral Officer, a copy to the Electoral Officer. A copy each to the security agents and a copy is posted at the Local Government Collation Centre.

The chain of custody then passes to the Returning Officer at the State level who receives the original copy of Form EC 8C – Local Government Area Statement of Result and if available, the original copy of Form EC40G1 – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified at Local Government Level.

The State Returning Officer

Form EC 8D – State Level Statement of Result (Handler – State Returning Officer)

The State Returning Officer with collate the results in Form EC 8C submitted by the Local Government Collation Officers in that State into Form EC 8D.

Form EC40G2 – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified at State Level (Handler – State Returning Officer)

If any Form EC40G1 is submitted, the details are documented in Form EC40G2

The State Returning Officer will then announce to the hearing of all the collated the results in Form EC 8D giving due consideration to the details in Form EC40G2

The State Returning Officer will then sign Form EC 8D and invite the party agents to sign the form. A refusal of the agents to sign the form will not invalidate the election results.

Copies of Form EC 8D are then given to the candidates or their representatives, a copy to each security agent, one for the Resident Electoral Officer and a copy is posted at the State Level Collation Centre.

The chain of custody then passes to the Chief Electoral Officer for the Federation who receives the original Form EC 8D – State Level Statement of Result from all State Returning Officers and if any the original Form EC40G2 – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified at State Level.

The need for vigilance

With the distribution of results that are posted at Polling Unit and all Collation Centres at Registration Area, Local Government Area and State Level, the party agents, security agents and other electoral officers receiving copies of the declared results and then the announcing the results at each level, it would probably take a massive fraud to change the express will of the people.

However, there are people who will attempt to suborn the process by getting results nullified or not casting doubt on the results by withdrawing the support of their agents when it comes to signing the relevant forms.

It is important that along with the change of custody which we may not have full visibility of, voters should post the activities at their respective Polling Units to the ReVoDa [4] system.

Sources

[1] 234Next.com | Electoral body rules out fingerprint proof for elections

[2] Chain of custody - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] INEC Guidelines for the General Elections in April 2011

[4] ReVoDa | How it works

Nigeria: Table of INEC Electoral Chain of Custody

Table of INEC Electoral Chain of Custody

This table documents the forms handled by INEC electoral officials with regains to materials and the reporting of electoral results from your Polling Unit to the chain to the Chief Electoral Officer.

Form	Actions	Endorsements
Form EC.25B – Electoral Materials Receipt Form (Handler – Presiding Officer)	Check electoral materials issued. (Correct number of ballot papers and indelible ink)	Sign for materials after checking - Presiding Officer
	Check every page of the Voters’ Register is signed and stamped with the INEC stamp.
	Check that no pages are missing from the Voters’ Register.
Form EC 8A – Statement of Result (Handler – Presiding Officer)	The number of voters on the Register. (In words and figures)
	The number of accredited voters. (In words and figures)
	The number of accredited voters waiting in the queue to vote(In words and figures)
	The number of votes scored by each candidate (In words and figures)	Sign this section – Presiding Officer & Polling Agents
	Where the result is nullified.	“Result cancelled”
	Sign the completed form.	Presiding Officer One Party Agent from each political party
	Give copy to each Party Agent and to the security agents.
	Post copy at Polling Unit
	Give original to Registration Area Collation Officer > Chain of Custody.
Form EC 40A – Electoral Materials Returns Form (Handler – Presiding Officer)	Account for the number of ballot papers collected for the voting exercise.	Note the exact numbers for each category in the form. This must filled in and announced at the Polling Unit. (This advice was posted by the @inecnigeria Twitter account during the NASS elections on the 9th of April 2011) @inecnigeria INEC: Make sure the Corpers at Polling Units use the form EC 40A to account for used and unused ballot papers. #NigeriaDecides
	Count the number of ballot papers used included those spoiled.
	Count the number of unused ballot papers.
	This should go up the Chain of Custody
Form EC 8B – Registration Area Statement of Result (Handler – Registration Area Collation Officer)	Collate results submitted in Form EC 8A by all Presiding Officers.
	Sign the completed form.	Registration Area Collation Officer Candidate or Party Agent
	Give copy to each Party Agent, the security agents and the Electoral Officer.
	Post copy at Registration Area Collation Centre
	Give original to Local Government Collation Officer > Chain of Custody
Form EC40G – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified (Handler – Registration Area Collation Officer)	Collate all nullified results in FORM EC 8A Document all Polling Units where elections did not hold.
	Give original to Local Government Collation Officer > Chain of Custody
Form EC 8C – Local Government Area Statement of Result (Handler – Local Government Collation Officer)	Collate all results submitted in Form EC 8B by all Registration Area Collation Officers
	Sign the completed form.	Local Government Collation Officer Candidate or Party Agent
	Give copy to each Party Agent or candidate, the Resident Electoral Officer through the Electoral Officer and to each security agent.
	Post copy at Local Government Collation Centre.
	Give original to State Returning Officer > Chain of Custody
Form EC40G1 – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified at Local Government Level (Handler – Local Government Collation Officer)	Collate all details in Form EC40G of Polling Units in the Local Government Area where elections were nullified or elections did not hold.
	Give original to State Returning Officer > Chain of Custody
Form EC 8D – State Level Statement of Result (Handler – State Returning Officer)	Collate all results submitted in Form EC 8C by all Local Government Collation Officers
	Sign the completed form.	State Returning Officer Candidate or Party Agent
	Give copy to each candidate or representative, the Resident Electoral Officer and to each security agent.
	Post copy at State Level Collation Centre.
	Give original to Chief Electoral Officer of the Federation > Chain of Custody.
Form EC40G2 – Documentation of Elections that did not hold or those Cancelled or Nullified at State Level (Handler – State Returning Officer)	Collate all details in Form EC40G1 of all Polling Units at State Level where elections were nullified or elections did not hold.
	Give original to Chief Electoral Officer of the Federation > Chain of Custody.