The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has alleged massive voter identity theft, criminal harvest of permanent voters cards (PVCs), and compromise of Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by Governor Hope Uzodimma and his appointees.
PDP publicity secretary, Collins Opurozor raised the alarm while addressing newsmen at the party secretariat yesterday.
According to him, the Imo State Social Benefit Number scheme was nothing but a calculated attempt to undermine, derail and manipulate the forthcoming governorship election in the state so as to perpetuate Uzodimma in power.
Opurozor said Uzodimma had “dispatched appointees and agents of his government to all the polling units in the State to commence the illegal harvest of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) of eligible Imo voters. In order to hoodwink Imo people into releasing their PVCs, these agents of the rejected regime came up with a phony scheme of issuing what they termed “Imo State Social Benefit Number” to the people”.
Further, the Imo PDP spokesperson said the Imo State Social Benefit Number scheme was in reaction to the pronouncement of the supreme court on the Osun State governorship election, which upheld the BVAS as the primary source of voter accreditation data.
The party called on the Inspector-General of Police and the Director General of State Security Service to investigate the activities of Senator Uzodinma and to immediately apprehend and prosecute his appointees and agents who are involved in the massive harvest of PVCs, voter identity theft and plot to compromise the BVAS.
He said “According to their deceit, the Social Benefit Number would give the people a better life and save them from poverty and disease. With this barefaced lie, many people in Imo have now surrendered their PVCs and become victims of voter identity theft designed for the cloning of the PVCs and front-loading of the BVAS ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in the State”.
He disclosed that the scheme was unsafe for people and their monies in the bank saying “Apart from taking hold of their Voter Identification Number (VIN), Imo people are further beguiled to submit their Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identity Number (NIN) to the agents of this infamous regime. With these highly sensitive details, the desperate regime of Senator Uzodinma can track the location of anyone in Imo State for arrest, harassment, intimidation, and possible elimination. Also, monies in their bank accounts have become completely unsafe.
“The salient point to note is that the regime of Senator Uzodinma, which is the chief creator of rural poverty in Imo State, has at last weaponized and deployed poverty as an instrument for electoral fraud. Imo people are now promised food and medicine on the condition that they yield to electoral fraud by submitting their PVCs, their only tool for political emancipation”, he said.
Opurozor complained over what they described as silence by the federal government on the “continued use of Imo State as a guinea pig for all anti-democratic and fascist experimentations”.
He warned that any attempt to undermine the electoral process in Imo will result in break down of law and order saying “The enablers of Senator Uzodinma in Abuja should realize that the plot to deny Imo people the right to choose their own governor on November 11, 2023 will be an invitation to anarchy. To be clear, Imo under Senator Uzodinma has become a theater of bloodshed and human rights abuses, and this must never be allowed to continue. Never again”.
Further, the party called on the people to keep faith with PDP and continue to support their governorship candidate, Senator Samuel Anyanwu saying he “has the character and proven track record to deliver good governance, and a clear roadmap to liberate the State from the maelstrom of squalor, misery, insecurity, infrastructural decay and educational miasma, and to make Imo safe again”.
According to him, an authoritative economic intelligence watchdog called “Clacified” just last month, ranked Imo FIRST in the prevalence of rural poverty in the Southeast region, and first in Nigeria’s misery index, saying it was “as a result of the catastrophic failure of governance in the State and also a direct consequence of the willful and cruel diversion of the sum total of N206 Billion belonging to the local government system by the regime of Senator Uzodinma in the last forty months”.
