Chidinma Okorie, a presiding officer (PO) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has campaigned for Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
The ad-hoc staff, who is also a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), took to her Twitter page on election day to solicit votes for the former Anambra governor.
Okorie declared that Obi “must win” while sensitizing voters to look out for the Labour Party’s logo.
“If stress was a person, I didn’t sleep all night. Presiding officer Peter obi must win. Please it’s just the logo on the ballot papers ooo no LP,” she wrote in the now-deleted tweet.
Presiding officers are in charge of all activities at a polling unit on election day. They sort, count, and announce election results at the polling unit after tabulating and summing up the votes cast.
They must be at the polling unit early to set up, coordinate activities at the voting points, and conduct voter education ahead of voting.
They also issue the ballot paper(s) to voters and ensure that voters deposit thumb-printed ballot paper(s) into the appropriate ballot box.
INEC has consistently cautioned that electoral officials — which include the presiding officer — maintain neutrality during elections.
The NYSC also warned corps members deployed for the election to be non-partisan.
This is an unacceptable behavior from an @inecnigeria presiding officer.
We condemn this action in the strongest possible terms and urge INEC to take immediate action to investigate and address the issue. #EnoughIsEnough2023 #NigeriaDecides2023 https://t.co/5eNysWNPeM— EiE Nigeria (@EiENigeria) February 25, 2023
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Reacting to the now-viral post, Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE), the civil society organisation, condemned the corps member’s action.
The organisation also called on the electoral body to investigate the matter.
“This is an unacceptable behavior from an @inecnigeria presiding officer. We condemn this action in the strongest possible terms and urge INEC to take immediate action to investigate and address the issue,” they wrote on Twitter.
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