Kogi West: Bypassing BVAS, Conjured Figures Must Not Stand – Group

Deliberate sidetracking of BVAS facilitated use of arbitrarily conjured figures so the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission must urgently reverse the reckless manipulations and barefaced subversion of democratic ideals that attended the collation of results in Kogi West Senatorial District, the Teejay Yusuf Kogi West Campaign Organisation has said.

“The most mindless affront to Nigeria’s democracy, barefaced irregularities and reckless manipulations that attended the Kogi West Senatorial elections have resulted into the arbitrary use of figures that do not reflect the wishes of our people as democratically expressed during voting,” the group emphasized in a statement on Monday.

In the statement issued by Hon. Hassan Salau who is the organization’s Director-General, they stressed that if the Federal Government and INEC have sufficient and genuine interest in sustaining Nigeria’s democracy, the current electoral manipulations and allocation of figures must be reversed immediately.

According to Salau, while some members of the ruling APC relied on force and undemocratic means to sabotage the election in Kogi West Senatorial District, widespread attestations of humility and long-standing genuine populist commitment worked to ensure Honourable Teejay Yusuf’s consistent success in previous and current electoral contests.

“Many infractions perpetrated by APC agents and government officials in Yagba East, Yagba West, Mopa-Amuro, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu and Koton-Karfe local government areas included serial cases of over-voting in polling units; their massive bypass or non-usage of BVAS and other gross infringement of the Electoral Act led to anarchic free-for-all in places like Olle-Oke Offin ward where under-aged children were mobilized for thumb-printing and rigging.

“The patterns of over voting in Yagba East were absolutely reckless and in too many places across the senatorial district; while several cases of over voting were cancelled, there was widespread bypassing of BVAS which gave room for further manipulations and conjured figures that yielded very faulty results.

“Aside from recording numbers above that of accredited voters, there was simulated violence in Kotonkarfe local government area solely for the purpose of scaring voters away and results in several areas were not uploaded, contrary to INEC’s published guidelines and the provisions of the Electoral Act,” he stated while giving insight into the electoral malpractices in Kogi West Senatorial District.

“Nonetheless, we join other Kogites to further applaud Honourable Teejay Yusuf’s meritorious populist representation as a three-term member of the House of Representatives who brought an unprecedented spate of community development projects and populist empowerment; for this, we shall ensure a resolute opposition to saboteurs of democracy who appear bent on truncating the peoples’ choice.

“First, our people raised alarms with allegations of over-voting and attempts by some government agents to manipulate figures in some polling units, wards and local government areas.

“Truly, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; voters’ quick response and objections against manipulations by those who wanted to cheat Hon. Teejay Yusuf led to immediate cancellation of results in Iyah Unit (Otu Ward), Iyah Ayeh Ward, units in Yagba East, Yagba West, Mopa-Amuro, Kotonkarfe and Lokoja as well as one polling unit in Ekinrin-Adde ward and notably, an attempted manipulation of figures was instantly tackled.

“INEC’s Electoral Officers allowed major infarctions in the electoral process that led to over-voting; by arbitrarily ensuring a faulty process of bypassing the use of BVAS, multiple voting, with alleged cases of under-aged children doing thumb printing in classrooms occurred and INEC had no sure result to upload because of its personnel’s opaque avoidance of BVAS and lack of transparency.

“Also, a state Commissioner was alleged to have ambushed INEC officials who were taking results of Kotonkarfe local government area to Lokoja, the state capital but the will of the people must prevail towards the eventual reversal of current travesties in favour of Honourable Teejay Yusuf’s clear emergence as our Senator, “ he added.