Former Foreign Minister Olubanke King Akerele Rages with NEC’s Staff ‘Ignoring’ Her for “45 Minutes”
IPNEWS – Former Foreign Minister Olubanke King Akerele was visibly shaking and furious with Mr. Prince Dunbar, one of the Public Relations Officers of the National Elections Commission (NEC), for what she termed as being “ignored for 45 minutes.”
Minister King Akerele, who is now the Board Chair of Angie Brooks International Center (ABIC), Tuesday, October 24, marched angrily onto the podium where the Commissioners of the NEC were all seated and began to indignantly utter: “How dare you; how dare you!! You didn’t recognize me. This is a disgrace; this is a disgrace! He saw me when I raised my hands and I had to sit; then I stood up for 45 minutes!”
As she screamed using all her senior citizen’s voice to vent out her frustration with the NEC Commissioners themselves who were directly in her line of fire, Minister King-Akerele tried to let them know that the action of Dunbar was a deliberate one to ignore her. “How dare you! Ignoring me and only looking at the journalists. I am the chair of the Angie Brooks, y’all treat me like this? Not only that I am a former senior government official. How dare him; I had to stand up for 45 minutes. Y’all gonna arrest me? It is a disgraced!”
Sometimes during her rants, her voice got drown up by the audience and journalists, who clamored to get everything she was venting out to the NEC Commissioners.
The Chairperson of the NEC, Madam Davidetta Browne Lansanah’s voice could be heard more than three times telling the 77-year-old Senior Citizen: “We apologize…”
It seems all the Commissioners were completely caught off guard as they all, safe the Chairperson, sat there stunned and couldn’t say a word. This is probably the first time for such to happen at such a very important event of the nation’s elections body.
It all happened following Chairperson Browne Lansanah’s announcement of a runoff between President/Candidate George Manneh Weah and former Vice President/Candidate Joseph Nyuma Boakai. The runoff, the NEC Chairperson said will be held on the second Tuesday, November 14, 2023.
After Madam Lansanah had announced the final results of the October 10, 2023 Presidential and Legislative Election, she said the Constitution says that if none of those taking part in a national presidential election, got 50 percent+1 of the total valid votes cast, then the first two with the highest numbers of votes will square off in a runoff in order to determine the next president.
When she got through making the announcement, she opened the floor for journalists to ask questions. It was during the questions-and-answer period that Ms. King Akerele, who was sitting on the side of the Elections Observers, had stood up and even raised her right hand in order to be recognized. Ms. King-Akerele, who is a member of the Women’s Situation Room, clearly wanted to say something to the Commissioners and to the Commission as a body.
She was not given the opportunity when Dunbar, who moderated the Q&A section, ended the entire event. However cameras were still rolling, including the NEC’s, when the former Foreign Minister began walking toward the podium to raise her concerns about why she was “ignored.”
When she had vented out her anger, she left the stage felling satisfied; and later told journalists that it was not much of a thing but that she wanted to commend the NEC’s Chairperson for the explanation she had provided as it relates to the astronomically high invalid votes that accumulated during the first ballot and about voters’ trucking that were reported by some.
