The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) on Thursday said it has now been confirmed that the All Progressives Congress (APC), was behind the planned sack of the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud. This follows concerns raised by the ruling APC over the proposed use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the 2023 general election.

APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, had expressed his reservation on the use of BVAs when a delegation for Commonwealth on the 2023 general election paid a courtesy visit to the party secretariat in Abuja. He also expressed the same concern while addressing some journalists.

CUPP, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, said the development which is coming barely 90 days before the presidential election has also confirmed that they were right in their claim that APC plans to carry out digital vote buying in the 2023 general elections.

The statement reads: “Technology keeps making it increasingly possible to reduce the contentious menace of electoral fraud and other forms of manipulation that has characterized our electoral system in times past.

“With the emergence of the Bimodal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS), which is replacing the Smart Card Readers used in previous elections, polls in Nigeria will now be better in credibility.

“With this, those in power who connive with electoral officials to recklessly cancel manual votes on their way to collation centres will be disappointed.

“We at the CUPP revealed how Imo state governor, Hope Uzodinms compromised the INEC voters register in the state and 17 other states of the federation.

“More shocking was that of his OMUMA WARD where foreigners, dead people, and brochure pictures were uploaded as new voters to pave way for a new rigging strategy. While we are grateful for the new BVA system, we will not tolerate any plot to sack the INEC Chairman,” he said.

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