A nascent civil society coalition, The International College of Democracy and Human Rights Scholars, says it has uncovered seven more rigging plots ahead of the 2023 presidential poll.

The recently formed coalition of democracy and social justice experts operating in Nigeria and beyond, involving 41 Professors, 20 Doctorate Degree Holders, 30 Lawyers, 19 Indigenous Northern Religious Leaders, 14 Eastern Nigerian Democracy and Human Rights CSO Leaders, Swiss and American Rights Campaigners and other respected democracy and social justice advocates or campaigners, has, therefore, given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seven days to speak up on the alleged uncovered seven more rigging plots ahead of the Feb 2023 Presidential Election.

This is contained in a letter dated August 10, 2022 by the College and addressed to Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, through the National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye (Esquire) and made available to newsmen in Enugu on Saturday, August 13, 2022.

The College had, in its first letter of 14th July 2022, to the Commission, uncovered 30 disenfranchisement and election rigging plots in connection with the 2023 Presidential Election. Our joint letter of 10th August 2022, “further disclosed how INEC deliberately, mindlessly, hatefully and discriminatorily destroyed 15.4m out of the 27.6m new voters’ registrations” which took place in 12 months, July 2021 to July 2022. The latest discovery has brought to 37, the number of busted rigging plots under INEC’s watch, out of which, at least, 20 were substantially executed during the just ended (terminated) Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

The letter, signed by the following: Emeka Umeagbalasi (Intersociety Board Chair), Prof Jerry Chukwuokolo, High Chief Prof Justice Chidi, Comrade Aloysius Emeka Attah (Chair, Southeast CLO), Barr Justus Uche Ijeoma (CSO), Dr Patrick Mbum, Barr Chinwe Umeche (Lawyers Forum), Rev Dr Ahaz Taye (Religious Leaders Forum) and Barr Chidinma Udegbunam (Intersociety), on behalf of the Coalition, detailed the additional seven rigging plots, thus:

“Nigerians and the entire global community will wish to know from the Commission the company or companies and their owners presently handling the supply of machines for the printing of PVCs and other sensitive electoral materials or printing of PVCs proper and voting and result sheets; or those handling contracts for the supply of sensitive machines such as Bimordal Voters’ Accreditation System (BVAS) and Voters’ Enrolment Device (IReV), etc. This is because in 2019, the present INEC Chairman openly admitted that the then APC Senatorial Candidate (now a serving Senator) for Niger East Senatorial District, Senator Mohammed Musa’s Activate Technologies Limited was responsible for supply of machines used for printing of PVCs and other sensitive electoral materials (see Tribune Online of 17th Feb 2019). Therefore, INEC must publicly tell Nigerians and the entire global community the names of the companies and their owners that presently handle the printing of PVCs or supply their machines and other sensitive electoral materials.

“On Sunday, 7th August 2022, a concerned citizen taking a walk exercise along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Roadside Walkway videoed thousands of Christian PVCs (bearing Yoruba and Igbo Christian names). Shockingly, the uncollected INEC-held Christian PVCs were found to have been stacked from far away INEC offices in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory from where they were secretly transferred to Lagos jurisdictional areas by hired politico-religious fanatics, in collusion with INEC and openly scattered or dumped them on walkways and inside gutters. This strongly means that extremist cabals within INEC are working in collusion with recruited non-Christian fanatics and their likes in several INEC offices across the country to sort out for destruction, Christian PVCs so as to reduce the 2023 Presidential Election to all Muslims affair. Not long ago, another video trended on social media, exposing the excavation of over 20,000 Christian PVCs in Obio/Akpor area of Rivers State. There was also a discovery by a hunter about two weeks ago of 320 Christian PVCs inside an uncompleted building in Bayelsa Forest. In Igboeze North of Enugu State, about two months ago, INEC office was compromised and thousands of Christian PVCs made away with. Similar reports also abound in different parts of the North. About three weeks ago, some political aides suspected to be working for the Governor of Borno State, wearing his customized faze caps, were caught in a video sharing N500 notes among women and children and collecting their PVCs at a location that looked like IDP Camp in the State. These are just to mention but a few. The College hereby demands INEC’s concrete response to the above within seven days.

“Several findings have been made and several plots exposed in the recent past, especially in Anambra State, during its 2017 and 2021 staggered Governorship Elections concerning the notorious use of collected and uncollected PVCs for scientific poll rigging. Collected PVCs include those criminally bought from unenlightened and morally deficient citizens by politicians for purpose of scientific rigging using INEC’s ICT severs.

Uncollected PVCs include those INEC-held PVCs belonging to registered citizens who have not been given same by INEC and which the Commission compromised and handed over to unscrupulous and criminal politicians to be used in scientific poll rigging. These criminal PVCs become instruments for scientific poll rigging when they are criminally captured by INEC in its severs and uploaded as “validly cast votes” and credited to favored candidates. Their uploading on INEC servers are done on Election Day. Their criminal processes are manually perfected by INEC by compromising ballot papers in commensurate quantity or number with the number of criminal PVCs uploaded. The compromised ballot papers are thump-printed at designated criminal quarters for purpose of manually legitimizing the criminal act at electoral courts. For instance, at the end of the 2017, November 18 Governorship Election in Anambra State, INEC declared 8,540 voters as “having been accredited but did not vote.” This is even when INEC had used “accredit and vote” simultaneous method. It later turned out that the figures were shortfall between the criminally uploaded PVCs and criminally thump-printed ballot papers. The Commission had no other option than to invalidate them to avoid being in trouble at electoral courts. The College hereby demands that the Commission speak on most likelihood of using same in the Feb 2023 Presidential Election in preference of its possibly favored Presidential Candidate.

“Election postponements and inconclusive ones have become a rigging tool under INEC in recent years, such that they are used, in addition to heavy militarization of the technically mapped out areas, to brazenly and mindlessly deprive voters of their inalienable rights to elect popular candidates of their choice, particularly in the presidential election. Once the carefully mapped out arenas are heavily militarized under the pretext of ‘election security’ and conscientious voters scared away, the rest is history. We saw this brazenly taking place in the 2019 Presidential Poll and in Osun State in its 2018 Governorship Election, etc. It is also likely to have been penciled down for a repeat in the Feb Presidential Election of 2023. INEC must publicly speak out on this within seven days.

“Independent intelligence at our disposal is strongly pointing at the likelihood of eruption of indiscriminate planting and detonation of bombs and other explosive devices and their expositions from few months or several weeks to the 2023 General Elections, particularly the Presidential segment, across the country, especially in the opposition strongholds and their environs including meters away from polling units. We have seen such being the order of the day in recent elections. With troubling state of security across the country, including the untamed and menacing attacks by Jihadists and subversive activities of radicalized or extremist elements within the country’s soldiering, policing and intelligence establishments or forces, these fears are both informed and sustained. They have also become part of election rigging methods geared towards scaring away most of the conscientious voters and providing a field day for state actor and non-state actor poll riggers. The College hereby strongly demands that the Commission must publicly speak on them, including measures to put in place to protect the 2023 General Elections, especially the Presidential segment and their voters.

“With indiscriminate reports across the country of PVCs belonging to Nigerians, especially Christian citizens and held by INEC being sorted out and stashed away for destruction from INEC offices and with their owners trouping to INEC offices in search for them in vain ahead of the all-important 2023 Presidential Poll, the College demands that the Commission speak out and tell Nigerians and the world, measures being put in place, if any, to remedy the ugly situation including possibility of re-issuance of fresh PVCs to the affected citizens; likewise the case of those whose names may likely be deliberately omitted by INEC from their local polling unit Register of Voters (Election Day PVC disenfranchisement). INEC must also speak out publicly on this.

“Is it not correct to say that INEC hurriedly closed online version of the CVR on 31st May 2022 and CVR proper on 31st July 2022 instead of at least end of Sept 2022 so as to shut out tens of millions of Nigerians of voting age and revert to use of the poll rigging friendly 2019 National Register of Voters so as to rig in favored presidential candidate and his or her political party and rig out the widely popular another or others?

“INEC is hereby called upon to take notice of the additional seven rigging plots uncovered and publicly speak on them within seven days,” the Coalition said.

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