FCT Polls: A Number Of Result Sheets Were Altered — ActionAid Boss

The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Mamedu, has raised concerns over alleged irregularities in the just-concluded Federal Capital Territory (FCT) area council elections, saying his organisation observed cases of tampered result sheets and delayed uploads of polling unit results.

Mamedu, who spoke during an interview on Arise News Channel on Monday, said ActionAid was still compiling its final reports and could not immediately provide full details of its findings.

“We are still compiling our final reports, so we will not be able to give you details right now — for instance, the result sheets and how many per cent were tampered with,” he said.

However, he stressed that preliminary observations from the field were troubling.

“We saw a good number of result sheets tampered with,” Mamedu stated.

“We saw that some results uploaded were not visible. The major one was a huge delay.”

According to him, polls officially closed by 2:30 p.m., after which results were expected to be snapped and uploaded using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

“Polls closed by 2:30 p.m., so it is expected that the BVAS is used to snap and upload the result sheets,” he said. “But the BVAS upload of result sheets didn’t come in until late in the evening. Would that be deliberate?”

Mamedu also cited low voter turnout in some areas, revealing that observers were aware of at least one polling unit where participation was extremely poor.

“We are aware of a polling unit that only seven persons came out to vote,” he said.

While he did not directly accuse the electoral umpire of wrongdoing, Mamedu urged Nigerians to hold the electoral body accountable and demand higher standards.

“I think Nigerians need to demand more from INEC,” he said. “For instance, starting with what happened with the glitches experienced in the last election.”

He emphasised that INEC’s constitutional independence must be preserved and reflected in its operations.

“INEC is independent for a reason. It should not be seen working with a political party. INEC gets support and various kinds of funding,” he added.