Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged moves by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to destroy evidence of its rigging of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja yesterday.
Ologunagba said, “Late yesterday (Monday) at 10: 10 pm, INEC in a desperate move to prevent our party and candidate from obtaining necessary evidence as ordered by the court, filed a motion requesting that it be allowed to reconfigure the BVAS machines and wipe out relevant information that our party and candidate require to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
“This reprehensible action by INEC to frustrate the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court is a clear recipe for crisis and a deliberate design by the Commission to derail our democracy and trigger anarchy in the country.
“Nigerians can recall how the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, superintendent over the manipulation of the results of the presidential election and hurriedly announced a winner in spite of widespread outcry and complain over numerous evidence of malpractices and violation of several provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 by INEC and its officials.”
He said the INEC chairman bypassed all the steps and procedures provided by the Electoral Act, 2022 for the declaration of results, including to announce and declare only results that were transmitted directly from the polling units to the INEC Server/Website and to review the results in the event of disputes and objections as to the correctness and consistency of the collated result.
The PDP said instead of being guided by the law, the INEC chairman announced and declared results that were not transmitted directly from the Polling Units to INEC’s Server/Website while ignoring the objections and complaints raised during the collation in complete disregard to the provisions of the Electoral Act.
“Despite the provocative act of the INEC chairman, the PDP as a law-abiding Party approached the court and obtained an Order directing INEC to, among other things, grant our Party and Candidate unrestrained access to carry out a forensic examination of the ballot papers, Data forms, BVAS/and or card readers and all other necessary information, material and evidence to get redress for Nigerians at the Election Tribunal.
“Apparently panicked by the Order, INEC rushed to court to file a motion requesting the court to allow it reconfigure the BVAS devices with the view to erasing the information contained therein.
“In the obnoxious motion, INEC admitted that; the “BVAS Application stores the Accreditation Data for all voters accredited on the device for the Presidential, Senatorial Districts and House of Representatives elections conducted on the 25th February, 2023” and that the reconfiguration of the BVAS devices “entails purging the Accreditation Data on the BVAS devices”.
“This action by INEC is vexatious, provocative and only points to the impunity and culpability of the commission with regards to the reported manipulations and alteration of results to deny our Party and its candidate their victory at the presidential election. It further validates the fact that our Party and presidential candidate won the February 25, 2023 presidential election, based on the actual votes cast at the polling units.
“If INEC has nothing to hide, why was it in a hurry to declare manipulated results without recourse to the provisions of the Electoral Act and without consideration of the disputes, objections and complaints raised by parties during the collation process? Why is INEC panicky and desperate to erase the data in the BVAS if not that they contain evidence of malpractices and its culpability in the election?
“The PDP as a law-abiding party will continue to pursue the matter in accordance with the law. We believe that despite the shenanigans by INEC, justice will be served at the end of the day,” he said.
