Facts emerged yesterday on how the contracts for the printing of ballot papers by the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ended up in the hand of a South African company.
THISDAY checks revealed that the electoral body actually awarded the contracts to the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) who re-awarded the job to a South African firm through an associate of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
NSPMC, it was learnt, re-awarded the contracts because of the magnitude of the job and deadline given for its completion by INEC.
The person who got the contract is a Lagos-based financial consultant.
He had the ears of former president Obasanjo and was also said to have made some inputs to the former president’s thinking on agriculture, oil, gas, manufacturing, solid minerals and tourism matters.
No INEC official was willing to talk on the contract award last night.
The commission’s chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, had said the contract was awarded to NSPMC and not a South African company.
But the Mail & Guardian of South Africa in a report on April 26, 2007 established that three printers – Media24-owned Paarl Printers; Formeset, which handles large South African government orders; and Ren-form, which has ballot supply experience – were given the job to supply the entire requirement.
They were meant to be delivered to Nigeria by no later than Friday (April 20, 2007), the day before the elections.
The newspaper reported that the ballot papers were printed without counterfoils and serial numbers – features usually included to establish an audit trail.
The ballot papers were said to have been flown to Nigeria aboard four cargo flights. Locally based Norse Air was said to have flown a cargo of about 40 tonnes, arriving on the eve of the poll at its Nigerian destination only to be ordered by armed men to take it to another airport, causing a further delay.
European-based MK Airlines transported about 170 tonnes on two flights on that April 20, 2007, the second arriving at about 7pm in Lagos.
A fourth consignment, also on the same day, was organised directly by the Nigerian government aboard a passenger plane whose seats had been removed.
The newspaper gave details of how some South African companies were asked at the eleventh hour to print ballot papers.
The report said a local printer declined a request four days to the last April 21 poll to print the bulk of the presidential ballots, as there was not enough time to do a proper job.
According to the report, a local printer in South Africa, Lithotech, whose Elections Africa division supplied 100-million ballot papers for the Nigerian governorship and assembly elections a week before the presidential and federal elections, confirmed that it was invited to reprint 40-million presidential ballot papers to include Action Congress (AC) presidential candidate in the election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s name.
Lithotech Group Development Market Manager, Ben Sachs, had said the company “declined the offer to print within the short time-frame as air-freight availability and production time (were) not sufficient and the requirement could not be met”.
He also said Lithotech “would never entertain accepting a contract where the risk of non-compliance as required in this instance is so high”.
The paper, however, reported that three other local companies printed the ballots but did not add time-consuming security features.
The last-minute printing rush in South Africa had followed INEC’s initial decision to bar the AC candidate and former vice-president, Atiku, as a candidate, a decision that was upturned by the Supreme Court five days to the poll.
Paarl Print Managing Director, Mike Ehret, had confirmed the print order to the newspaper.
“Sure, we were under a lot of pressure, but it was a professional experience,” he had said.
Ren-form Manager Jean-Pierre du Sart said his company had provided a “packing list” and labelled pallets to help establish an audit trail, but that serial numbers would have taken too long. “If we had put on serial numbers, I don’t think the election would have taken place,” he said.
Du Sart was also quoted as saying, “it must have been a logistical nightmare to distribute ballots to even the most remote areas in Nigeria”.
Norman du Plessis, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer at South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission, also confirmed to the newspaper that local printers had contacted the commission about time constraints.
Meanwhile, INEC has denied that its chairman, Iwu, lied over the award of contracts for the printing of ballot papers for the last April 21 presidential election.
INEC’s National Commissioner, Information and Publicity, Mr. Philip Umeadi Jnr, said Iwu did not lie over the award of the contract, stressing that the commission did not award any contract for the printing of ballot papers to any South African company.
THISDAY had in its report in the Wednesday edition alluded to the seeming contradiction in the statement made in respect of the ballot papers on April 21, 2007, the day of the presidential poll, and what he said in his response to the interrogatories posed to him by the AC candidate in that election, Atiku.
However, another national newspaper in a similar story published yesterday reported that Iwu lied under oath over the award of the contract.
But in a chat with THISDAY in Sokoto yesterday, Umeadi Jnr described as untrue insinuations that there were contradictions in Iwu’s statements.
He said the INEC boss had made the clarifications in the answers he gave to the interrogatories from Atiku.
Umeadi Jnr said: “The issue raised in the queries was whether INEC awarded the contract to a South African firm, which the chairman made it clear that the commission did not award any such contract. We stand by that and if you investigate it anywhere you are going to find out that it is the truth and that Iwu did not lie under oath.”
According to Umeadi Jnr, all contracts for the printing of ballot papers, supplies and everything concerning the elections were awarded to indigenous firms, pointing out that it was the decision of NSPMC to decide where to print the ballot papers.
“I want to state categorically that all the contracts as regards the elections were awarded to indigenous firms. Now, awarding contracts to indigenous companies is one thing; if the firms sub- awarded the contracts or give part of it to external bodies that is another thing and that is entirely their business.
“It does appear that is what happened and we are actually aware that (NSPMC) printed part of the ballot papers in South Africa but the contracts were awarded to them not to any South African company, thus the commission cannot dictate to NSPMC where to print or do their job,” Umeadi added.