About a week after the results were announced, Professor Charles Adias, who served as Rivers State Collation Officer in the just-ended presidential election, sounded the alarm about the constant threat to his life. The University don, also vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Otuoke (FUO), Bayelsa, postponed the compilation of the results due to the threat to his life and family.
Adias claimed that some people loyal to the party were after his life, even though he had nothing to do with the conduct of the elections or the calculation of the results.
Those who accused him of rigging the Rivers State election trended his photo and personal information on his social media and urged members to engage with him.
In a statement released on Sunday, ‘My stewardship, my bond as state Collation Officer for the 2023 Presidential Election, Rivers State’, the vice chancellor said though he was not unaware of the challenges of being a collation officer, he decided to weather the storm because of his conviction to the growth and development of the political process in the country.
Adias said:
“On my appointment as State Collation Officer for the 2023 Presidential Elections (SCOPE), Rivers State, I had set out, as a call to duty on national assignment to fulfil an essential part of my Community Service as an academic and Vice-Chancellor of a Federal University.
“Hence, I worked within the scope of my briefs as statutorily demanded, and as clearly enunciated in the Electoral Guidelines and other enabling instruments. By the nature of my assignment, as it is with every other job in this sphere, I knew it was going to be challenging, but I braved it being assured that I would surmount whatever challenge by the grace of God.
“As statutorily designated, my job as the State’s Collation Officer for the Presidential Elections (SCOPE), Rivers State, and as expected of all Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities, who were also deployed to other states of the Federation too, I received the report of collated and announced results from Local Government Area Council Collation Officers (EC8C).
“I collated the votes scored by each political party from Forms EC8C into Form EC8D and entered the votes scored in the spaces provided; added up the LGA collated results to obtain the State’s summary; cross-checked the totals and entries in Form EC8D with the Collation Support and Result Verification System (CSRVS) secretariat for computational accuracy; announced loudly the votes scored by each Political Party; signed, dated and stamped the Form EC8D and requested the Polling Agents to countersign; Then other formalities followed up the ladder to the final Collation Centre in Abuja.
cc: The Nations Ng
