The just concluded Great IFE Students’ Union Central Executive Council (CEC) Election held on Thursday, June 26th has been criticised by some students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, since the election to them is filled with quite a number of irregularities and a lack of transparency.
Several agents in almost all the polling units raised concerns about spotting Part 1 students (who are not eligible to vote) joining the queue to vote, this was more rampant in the faculty of Law and Computing Science, however, nothing was done to it, since their names are on the eligible voters list being used for attestation. There was a report of an individual caught with 5 ballot papers in the Faculty of Art, and several other irregularities.
READ ALSO: Power and Pretence: How Great IFE Politics Mirrors Nigeria’s Politics
Constitutionally, only students who have spent a minimum of three (3) semesters can vote and be voted for in the students’ union election. However, it was in the opposite direction this session, especially in the faculty of Art, Computing Science, and Education, where the Part 1 students (who have not spent up to three semesters on campus) were compelled to vote for some candidates who later emerged as winners in their respective contested positions.
The electoral officiating in the Faculty of Law was the worst of all, and it was criticised by agents for its lack of transparency, which had left several agents in shock as to the outcome of the election. The Electoral Commissioner in the Faculty of Law, at the time of gathering this report, remains unknown. All that was known was that the election started with two AD-HOC officers (one of them, whose name is Marvellous Ezeh was said to have come from the Faculty of Law), an electoral security, and OAU security personnel. Dotunodun Joshua Pendragon, who was later presumed to be the electoral commissioner, only brought the ballot paper, but he kept hovering around the polling unit until it was time to count the votes, after a case of mix-up had occurred. Pendragon was nowhere to be found, yet he was then replaced with Olaoye David Elemoh, the electoral commissioner in the Faculty of Administration, who later counted the votes.
READ ALSO: UPDATED: Results of Press Confrontational Debate For 2025 Great IFE Students’ Union Election
The election commenced at the faculty basement, and the total number of ballot papers brought by Pendragon, counted at the beginning of the election, was 487. These counted ballot papers were still in use till around 6:42 p.m. when Pendragon brought a new set of unused ballot papers and placed them under the table. An unidentified student came from nowhere, shouting that he had heard that the electoral officers were voting at that polling unit. While his claim was true, because the ad-hoc officers really voted, and when concerns were raised, the Vice Dean, Division of Students Affairs, Dr Olasunkanmi, told the agent who raised the concern to bring out the constitution that says “Ad-hoc officers cannot vote.” While shouting, he banged the table and the ballot box nearly fell, but an AD-HOC officer quickly caught it, then Pendragon quickly put the remaining of the 487 ballot papers in use and the new ones (which has not been counted) he brought together, and moved to the Law Lecture Theatre 1 with only the registered agents allowed to enter and observe the voting process.
At the same spot, Elemoh, the electoral officer for the Faculty of Administration, came to get some available unused ballot papers, but he was declined, because there was already a disruption in the total number of ballot papers, as a result of the mix-up. The Dean, Division of Student Affairs, interfered, and a consensus was reached that all available ballot papers be used in batches, and they must also be signed with a red pen to distinguish them from the earlier used ballot papers. Hence, 30 new ballot papers, signed with a red pen, were counted. After this, Olaoye David Elemoh exited the polling unit with no ballot papers. At about a few minutes to the end of the voting process, Dotunodun Joshua Pendragon also exited the voting unit, and he was nowhere to be found after voting had ended by 8 p.m.
READ ALSO: OAU Celebrates Professor Bayode Popoola’s Appointment as the First Substantive VC of AFUED
At exactly 8:36 p.m., after all efforts to reach Pendragon had proved abortive, Elemoh entered to count the votes in place of Pendragon. However, an agent claimed to have received information that “Pendragon is in the Faculty of Art.”
Consequently, the total number of ballot papers signed (with red pen) after the mix-up was 30, and the number of unused when the vote came to an end was 19, meaning only 11 votes were used after the mix-up. This implied that the number of total ballot papers used in the voting process of the Faculty of Law is 517, i.e. 487+30 = 517, and the possible number of ballot papers used ought not to be more than 498, since there were 19 unused ballot papers. Mathematically, the total ballot papers used ought to be less than 487, since the earlier counted 487 ballot papers have not been exhausted, perhaps it exceeded 487. The total number of ballot papers used ought to be less than 498, except that the unused ballot papers is less than 19.
Shockingly, the total number of ballot papers used was found to be 678, and a sum of 180 was allegedly added. Agents showed their dissatisfaction with the miraculous increase in the number of used ballot papers, demanding that the number of voters whose names had been ticked on the voters’ list must be counted and compared with the number of used ballot papers; otherwise, the votes would not be counted. However, Elemoh declared that the votes should be counted, urging anyone who is not satisfied with the election results to write a petition. Meanwhile, some agents disagreed with this resolution, so they left angrily, saying the election had been rigged and was devoid of transparency.
#GreatIFEDecides: Electoral Commission Declares Winners of CEC Elections
The said votes were counted, and the results were released; meanwhile, how the total number of ballot papers increased from 517 to 678 remains unknown, yet no petition has been written to this effect so far. While the election was still going on, a voter whose name has already been ticked on the said eligible voters list attempted to cast her vote the second time, it was at this point that the agents got to know that the Ad-hoc officers do not bother to check the voter’s Identity Card, Portal and other means of identification, they only check the name on the list they tagged “tutorial list from the Faculty.”
All efforts to get clarity on whether Elemoh or Pendragon was the Faculty of Law electoral commissioner on the election day proved abortive, as none of these individuals responded to the question asked by ACJ correspondents. These “no response” gestures from both Elemoh and Pendragon, therefore, automatically hindered ACJOAU from asking more questions. Nonetheless, the question remains whether the said “tutorial list” is the faculty’s property or forged.