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MAY 14, 2007 VOL. 21. NO 5

Nigeria’s Rigging Machine

**Maurice Iwu**

Indications emerge, pointing to a conspiracy that links the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the presidency and some South African firms with the feared rigging of the 2007 general elections
By Tony Egbulefu
As outcry continues to mount from aggrieved Nigerians especially opposition political parties against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) poor logistics preparation for the April 14 and 21 polls, emerging indications clearly point in the direction of a sabotage and deliberate ploy by the Presidency and INEC authorities to starve the polls of ballot papers in a grand strategy to create room for the manipulations of the results.
Although the electoral body has so far, blamed the gross shortage of polling materials especially ballot papers on the 11th hour inclusion of the candidacy of Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the Action Congress (AC) presidential candidate, – the Supreme Court having cleared him for the presidential poll just five days to the election. On the governorship and House of Assembly polls, INEC had blamed the unavailability of voting materials that characterised the election on transportation challenges, which it stated were beyond its capability and also on a careful design by the commission not to expose the sensitive materials to an easy hijack by fraudulent politicians.
According to Iwu, the easy option open to the commission in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling was for INEC to paste Atiku’s photograph to the initially printed ballot paper, but had to rescind the action when “feelers,” he said, got to the commission that such was not going to be acceptable to the Vice President. As a result of these “feelers,” Iwu said the immediate alternative open to the commission was to use a consortium of local printers, which in likewise, Iwu said “mischievous Nigerians could easily have linked to some politicians, thereby derailing the process.”
As such, after the Supreme Court judgment of Monday, April 16, INEC, according to Iwu had to commission foreign printers the following day, to print the new ballot papers used for the presidential and National Assembly election. This, according to him, was a whopping 65 million ballot papers, whose printing was reportedly consummated on Thursday night –two days to the election.
Going by the INEC chairman’s account, the ballot papers were air-freighted to Nigeria on Friday, the eve of the election and were “immediately distributed across the county.”
Subsequent explanations by Iwu established that “ the ballot papers were printed in far-away South Africa, and weighed more than 30 tonnes of paper, and were air-freighted across neighbouring countries to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. He said that printing abroad thus presented a huge “logistical challenge,” particularly distribution. And that it was this logistical challenge that resulted in the late start of the presidential and national Assembly elections in certain parts of the country.” Iwu said that the logistical challenge also presented “ the commission with yet two challenges: conducting the elections such that the integrity of the polls were secured and conducting her polls in an elegant manner that met international best standards” In the final analysis, he said, “the commission opted for the integrity of the ballot.”
While announcing the results of the presidential election on April 23, Iwu again observed that “ the conduct of the 2007 election have not gone without difficulties.” According to him, because the commission “ introduced various innovations in the conduct of the polls this time around and because some other developments outside us and outside the control of the commission proved significant logistic problems, the 2007 election is far from perfect. The commission concedes that.” Yet, Iwu said Nigerians in judging the commission should not “forget the fact that we (the commission) had to change course at a very, very short notice. Many people believed that it was impossible to print 65 million ballot papers in three days, but we did it. To God be the glory.”
However, what happened to this huge volume of ballot papers, printed by Lithotech, a subsidiary of Bidvest Group, South Africa, such that there was a manifest unavailability of ballot papers in the April 21 polls has continued to agitate the minds of Nigerians and the international community. Notably, facts have emerged to suggest that the “logistical challenge” INEC said it faced as a result of the oversea printing of the ballot papers, was an artifice that was deliberately erected by INEC and the powers that-be in the Presidency.
For instance, that the serial numbers that were omitted by the printers were in the former ballot papers that had no Atiku candidacy, The Source gathered, was also deliberate, thus putting a lie to Iwu’s claim that the serial numbers were skipped in a rush and moreover, were not much of a value to the process.
According to an international report by Dr. Gary K. Busch, an international transport and logistics expert based in the United Kingdom which the Atiku Abubakar campaign organisation made available to The Source, written three days after the presidential election, Tuesday, April 24, the printing of the “Nigerian ballot papers,” which he said weighed 200 tonnes, “was completed and ready for shipment at a warehouse near Johannesburg Airport,” on the evening of Wednesday, April 18.
With the printing over, Lithotech, the printing company, arranged for its transportation to the country by Safcor Panalpina, which like Lithotech, is also a subsidiary of Bidvest Group. Busch described that Safcor Panalpina as a “supposedly top-rated international forwarding and logistic group.” Safcor Panalpina, the report disclosed, “sub-contracted the transport of these (ballot papers) to Nigeria, with several of their ‘buddies’ just as they (Safcor Panalpina) had done with the Democratic Republic of Congo ballot papers, which were also delayed and inadequate.” The report observed that “for some reasons, these ‘buddies,’ could not or would not perform on time.”
Because of the failure of the people the report described as “buddies”, Busch said “there was an apparent panic by Safcor Panalpina in South Africa by the end of Thursday,” prompting the company to contact other air freight companies “to see if they could transport the ballot papers.” Among the new freight companies contacted was the one Busch works for.
According to Busch, “we were in a position to provide the necessary aircraft and told the Bidvest team that we needed money upfront and then we would do it.” To the shock of Busch’s freight company, it got information later that same Thursday, that “they (Bidvest), weren’t in a hurry afterall, which arose from the fact that “the Nigerian customer (INEC), wanted to wait until Friday to see if he would go ahead as planned,” the report said. Because the Nigerian government and INEC was less than keen in moving the ballot papers home, the report said, Bidvest never bothered to contact the UK company again. “We heard nothing more,” Busch said.
As it were, INEC and the Nigerian government ensured that the 65 million ballot papers, stacked idle in a South African warehouse for two days after printing, and did not bother to freight them into the country until late Friday afternoon. “Late Friday afternoon, Nigerian air traffic control gave permission for some of the Safcor Panalpina flights to proceed, but to stop at midnight,” the report said. According to the report also, “the next morning, Saturday, April 21– election day – “other flights left.” And as at Tuesday, April 24 when the report was written, Busch said “there are still around 70 per cent of the ballot papers, left at the Johannesburg warehouse.”
The report, however said “this was no accident. This was not poor planning.” Rather, it described the event that led to the availability of a mere 30 per cent of the 65 million ballot papers printed for the April 21 polls as “a concerted decision of the Nigerian electoral officials with Bidvest and the South African authorities to follow this plan; to starve the voting booths of valid voting papers.” INEC and Aso Rock, the report said, only decided to convince “the world’s media that this (shortage of ballot papers), was the result of Atiku’s late re-entry to the presidential race, which delayed the printing of the ballots.” But this line, according to the report, is “pure, unadulterated horse shit.” It all happened, the report said, “because it was supposed to happen.”
According to the report, the unsavoury circumstances that have shrouded the printing of Nigeria’s ballot papers in South Africa is tending to be a major scandal “and establishes South Africa as the major election rigging force in the continent.”
One of the confirmations of the Busch report, which came from his colleagues in South Africa, said there is a 100 per cent “confirmation that it was Adagold with Boy Masilela,” in South Africa, “who executed the plan to prevent the ballot boxes (papers) from reaching Nigeria, together with the help of Nigeria’s electoral commission.” Adagold is a South African-based aviation company, while Boy Masilela is the country’s Defence Secretary.
According to a South African report that corroborated that of Busch, it was believed that “only an extremely low voter participation and starvation of certain provinces with ballot papers, could ensure victory for Obasanjo’s candidate and his party.”
The commission's spokesman, Phillip Umeadi Jnr., however, denied that about 70 per cent of the ballot papers were left behind in South Africa. When confronted with the allegation, Umeadi said INEC left only 700,000 ballot papers out of the 66 million that was printed by the printers.
He explained that the commission ordered for 65 million ballot papers but that the printers produced 66 million instead. Out of the figure, the INEC official said 64.3 million was delivered to the electoral body due to what he claimed was the inability of the aircraft to ferry the excess 700,000 ballot papers.
However, some South African journalists have been able to establish that it was not just Lithotech that printed the Nigerian ballot papers. According to accounts credited to the South African press, when Lithotech was approached by INEC in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement to print new ballot papers for the April 21 election, the company knew it would buckle under the weight of the sudden contract. INEC then had to contract three other South African printing companies - Palprint, Formset and Renform –which joined forces with Lithotech and printed the job in a rush. According to the report “they (the companies) left out all serial numbers, control sheets, etc, and just printed the ballots. They delivered them to Johannesburg Airport warehouse late Wednesday, early Thursday.”
According to the report credited to the South African press, “a number of airfreight companies were contacted to try to arrange the airfreight of the ballots to Nigeria. An Ilyushin-76 from Norse Air was used; MK Airlines took two cargoes on a 747-200, and the Nigerian ambassador to South Africa arranged a flight.”
According to the report, “the Norse Air flight arrived on Friday and there were some delays as it was diverted to two other airports (not in the contract). The other flights were delayed according to the report, “because of the need to position the aircraft in South Africa and the inefficiencies of INEC and the Nigerian Air Control people.” According to the report, “South African aviation people,” washed their hands off the blames, saying that “there was a lack of co-ordination between INEC and the printers and freight-forwarders, as well as a lack of urgency in the scheduling.”
The report as at Tuesday, April 24, also said that the official line by the South African aviation authorities was that, “they cannot comment on the reasons for the inefficiencies and delays, only that they happened.” But instructively, there are yet no figure on the number of ballots shipped – and those left behind.