By ERICJAMES OCHIGBO

A member of House of Representatives, Rep. Amobi Ogah (LP-Abia), has urged Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to investigate and prosecute the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Ms Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, over alleged forgery of the 2023 election results.

Ogah, representing Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia in the House of Representatives, made the call in a petition submitted to INEC headquarters in Abuja.

The petition is entitled: ?Re: Forgery, Uttering and Tendering Allied Forged Polling Unit Results Sheets Arising Out of the 2023 General Elections in Respect of Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia by Ms Nkeiruka Chidubem Onyejeocha.?

In the petition, Ogah, who is the Chairman, House Committee on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, alleged that Onyejeocha forged election results in the 2023 National Assembly elections in her bid to upturn the outcome of the polls.

Ogah said that he and Onyejeocha were among those who contested for the Isuikwuato/Umunnecochi Federal Constituency seat during the 2023 general elections.

He said that at the close of the elections, he (Ogah) was declared winner and that a Certificate of Return was issued to him by INEC.

The lawmaker said that INEC also issued certified copies of the polling units, wards, local government areas and the constituency results relating to the election, including copies downloaded from the I-REV portal.

He stated that Onyejeocha proceeded to the Election Tribunal in Umuahia to challenge the outcome of the election, praying to be returned as the winner of the election.

?Surprisingly, in the course of the election tribunal proceedings, Onyejeocha procured and presented a different set of 63 polling unit (PU) results that seemingly had INEC certification on them.

?These 63 results were entirely different from the authentic results issued and certified by your office in Umuahia, Abia and the INEC national headquarters in Abuja.

?It will interest you to know that relevant staff of the INEC office in Umuahia, Abia and those in the ICT unit of your headquarters in Abuja, denied knowledge of the results procured and tendered at the tribunal by Onyejeocha.

?Your staff equally reaffirmed the authenticity of the results tendered by me which were issued and certified by your commission.

?It is obvious from my narrative above that these 63 PU results tendered by Onyejeocha were fake and a product of a forgery exercise.

?It is in the light of the above that I call on your office to investigate this obvious act of forgery and prosecute Onyejeocha and all her accomplices.

?I am aware that the extant laws that empower your commission to investigate and prosecute electoral offenders, under which prosecution of offenders have long commenced and even secured convictions,? he said.

Ogah pledged to make available all necessary documents to aid the investigation, including both sets of results certified by the Registry of the Election Petition Tribunal in custody of all documents tendered at the tribunal.

The lawmaker also pledged to make available the judgment of the tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal that heard and determined the petition filed by Onyejeocha.

He said that the Court of Appeal?s judgment gave credence to the fact that the results tendered by Onyejeocha were not the authentic INEC results which affirmed the position of the petition on the alleged forgery.

Ogah prayed INEC to thoroughly investigate the matter and carry out all legal actions in the interest of Nigeria?s electoral system.

He said that the petition was part of his contributions to the ongoing efforts to sanitise the electoral system and curtail, to the barest minimum, all forms of criminality in the country.

However, in his reaction to the allegations, Mr Femi Oluwagbemi, the Senior Adviser to the Minister, described all the allegations as false.

Oluwagbemi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), that the petition was the handiwork of detractors.

?That is absolutely untrue; it is absolutely incorrect; these are detractors at work, there is nothing correct about that,? he said. (NAN)

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