A civil society group, TAP Initiative, has called for the investigation and prosecution of some ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), used for the conduct of the last governorship election in Edo State, over alleged acts of forgery.
Meanwhile, the group, in a petition to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), said it would not hesitate seek fiat from the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, should ICPC failed to act on its petition.
Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, shortly after submitting the petition at the headquarters of the ICPC in Abuja, Executive Director, TAP Initiative, Mr. Martin Obono, further threatened to petition the European Union and other international agencies to cut funding to INEC, which according to him has taken over rigging from politicians.
According to the group, they were ashamed to discover that INEC can go so low to use tax payers’ money to engage in institutional electoral fraud against the will of the people.
Obono disclosed that the alleged criminal action of some of the INEC staff was discovered after they obtained Certified True Copies (CTC) of the Edo governorship election results.
Among others, the legal practitioner claimed that a lot of discrepancies were uncovered in the CTC election results, prominent amongst which are absence of signatures of polling unit agents and presiding officers.
The CSO leader claimed that the shocking discovery of the discrepancies in the certified election results propelled them to engage a forensic expert from South Africa, who carried out analysis that established the rigging of Edo governorship election at the collation centers.
Specifically, Obono said that from the analysis of the expert it was discovered that forms EC8A were compromised at the collation centers where only one person signed and forgot the signature of others.
He added that the forms bore same serial numbers but different election results, indicating wrong doings in the collation of the results.
“It is regrettable that INEC is involved in institutional electoral fraud. INEC ought to be a gate keeper but it is now involved in direct rigging, and changing the will of the people.
“We will take a step further to write the United Kingdom, United States of America, European Union and other foreign donors to stop funding election in Nigeria, since they are being defrauded by the electoral body”, he said.
The group therefore demanded that all those involved in subverting the will of Edo people in the last governorship election must be brought to justice.
Answering a question, Obono dismissed the recent apology tendered by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, on the mistakes made by the electoral body during the conduct of Edo guber poll, insisting that “apology does not erase criminality committed against the people”.
Alex Enumah
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