A coalition made up of Int’l Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), the Southeast Zone of the Civil Liberties Organization (Southeast CLO) and the Southeast Based Coalition of Democracy and Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs) has raised the alarm over an alleged plot to rig the Anambra Governorship Election.

The coalition in a report jointly signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chinwe Umeche, Esquire and Chidimma Eva Udegbunam, Esquire (for Intersociety), Comrades Aloysius Attah and Vincent Ezekwueme (for Southeast CLO) and Jerry Chukwuokoro, PhD and Okezie Kelechi, PhD (for SBCHROs) exposed the leading poll riggers in Anambra State and their rigging plans ahead of the November 6 2021 Governorship Election in the state.

The Coalition noted that the gateway into Anambra Poll rigging concerning November 6 governorship election are the anti poll threats by the agitators and counter threats and siege by security forces especially soldiers of the Nigerian Army and personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.

“The agitators’ threats which originated from their leaders’ order of 27th April 2021 and their subsequent threats and use of physical and verbal violence such as issuance of a five-day pre poll sit-at-home order have inflicted the civil population especially voters with ‘intensive’ and ‘extensive’ fears and apprehensions; the killer attitudes of the security forces including laying siege or militarization of the electoral and other civil spaces, killings and burning of citizens’ properties and harassments and brutalities have also worsened and escalated the tensions and fears especially among members of the voting population. The violent deployment of estimated 150,000 military and policing personnel to man the Nov 6 Anambra Governorship Poll is a grand design to scare away and outnumber voters and provide Federal Government a field day to rig brazenly."

The group while recalling that origin of electoral malpractice in the state can be traced to fraudulent declaration of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), also reminded how the careers of six High Court Justices have been abruptly terminated by Anambra election riggers.

It also raised the alarm that the Federal Government of Nigeria and its preferred candidate in the Nov 6 Governorship Poll have nick-named November 6 2021 as their “day of crossover”.

“In other words, it is a day for the formalization of the already rigged poll and pronouncement of their anointed candidate as “the Anambra Governor-Elect”.

The coalition while explaining how the Anambra Governorship Poll of Nov 6 2021 been rigged already, said the election is waiting to be perfected on Nov 6 (date for crossover).

“The rigging was done by effecting massive uploading of procured PVCs in their tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands and having them uploaded and stored at INEC’s secret ICT servers waiting to upload them as “validly cast votes” on Nov 6 Anambra Governorship Poll. This was also the case in 2017 when INEC laughably declared that “8,540 voters were accredited but could not vote” and contrary evidence later showed that the number was a leftover of the criminally uploaded procured PVCs that missed being criminally thump-printed or captured as fake thump-printed ballot papers. In the case of the Nov 6 Poll, INEC agents working for the Federal Government Party have long been reported to have perfected both scientific (uploading of procured PVCs as validly cast votes) and manual version of the rigging using PVCs, by clandestinely releasing ballot papers possibly through INEC’s Imo facilities to the hired and quartered thump-printers who were reported to have thump-printed them in secret quarters according to location of polling booths and aggregate number of votes required for the rigging. They are also crookedly in the know of locations of the State’s 5,720 polling booths, the number of the registered voters and the number of them bearing PVCs." It revealed.

It investigation also revealed that riggers have also devised and mapped out “Plan B” which is massive vote-buying with estimated sum of not less than N5b or more.

The report alleged that apart from huge sums clandestinely mapped out by the Federal Government Party for rigging the Nov 6 Poll through massive vote buying.

Making recommendations on how to stop rigging and to stop the riggers and forestall their “crossover loads” into compromised, it said INEC’s strong rooms are achievable and do not require a rocket science.

It suggested that the following steps or actions must be carried out by the stakeholders: Assembling dedicated and trusted party agents and poll monitors especially across those 86 polling units where INEC said election will not take place.

It also suggested training and digitalization: This involves use of technology which must play a lead role in monitoring the Poll and collection of result sheets (i.e. FormEC8As) and it further includes capturing their biodata such as photographs and phone numbers and having them in a database and giving them basic trainings as well as having them horizontally and vertically coordinated by trained technologists at polling booths and LGA, Senatorial and State Levels.

It said that the rigging can be checkmated using polling units’ formEC8As adding that the use of INEC/Polling Units’ FormEC8As are the most effective way of checkmating poll rigging in Nigeria especially in Anambra State.

While alerting on possible sponsored violence and criminal cancellations, it advised political parties, their candidates, campaign councils and agents as well as credible independent poll monitors to ensure and insist on the availability of the FormEC8As and strong resistance to hoarding of same FormEC8As in all the polling units where the Poll is to be held.

It noted that if properly checkmated, using credible FormEC8As will produce between 300,000 and 500,000 total votes cast from which a winner will emerge.

“This is to guide against plans by compromised INEC to concoct and dish out stunning and shocking figures of “1.5m votes” as “total votes cast” and “over one million votes” as “total votes scored by the winner and Anambra Governor-Elect”.

“This was exactly the case in the massively rigged polls of 19th April 2003 and 14th April 2007.”

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