The Oyo state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mutiu Agboke, has disclosed that he almost ran away during the collation of the last election results in the state.
He disclosed this when he received the “Hero of democracy” award of Noble FM, an Ibadan based private radio station, at the state office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ibadan.
The INEC state commissioner explained that he faced blackmail, temptations and threats from politicians at some points.
In a report by Nigerian Tribune, Agboke said if not for his resilience and commitment to due process, collation of results of elections could have been stalled and election rendered inconclusive in the state.
Recounting his personal ordeal, Agboke said when the challenges got to a head, he called National Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu for help, but was mandated to continue the collation and do what was right.
He added that the threats to compromise during collation included the kidnap and locking up of INEC staff though they were later rescued.
“I remember that during the collation of one of the results, there were issues and I needed to call my Chairman. I told the Chairman that I was going to run away.”
“He laughed over the phone and asked me to continue the collation and do the right thing. He told me this four times.
“After the call, I became emboldened, returned to this hall appearing like wildfire. Then, I told the returning officer that we are not leaving this hall until we conclude the collation, and we did.
“I do not want to talk in specific terms but let us forge ahead. The important thing is that we have conducted the election and we did not allow any form of temptation, in any form, to override our statutory duties. The fact is that we had challenges and these challenges were in various forms, but we surmounted them.”
