The sudden postponement of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is only part of a wider rigging plot, the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights & Democracy Organizations (SBCHROs) has alleged.

The group, a coalition of 22 human rights and democracy organisations, made the allegation in a statement issued in Onitsha, in which it said that the members “are not surprised at the eleventh hour postponement or shift for seven and fourteen days respectively of the scheduled Presidential/National Assembly and Governorship/State Assembly Elections in Nigeria.”

“The shift in the date of the Presidential Election, in particular, was utterly done by INEC with sinister motives and in inescapable conspiracy of the present central Government of Nigeria. The sudden shift is inexcusable and goes beyond “logistical reasons”.

“As a matter of fact the sudden shift represents one of the many embryonic rigging templates or plans of the Prof Mahmood Takubu led INEC. What is happening to Prof Mahmood Yakubu and his administration of INEC since his appointment as INEC Chair on 21^st October 2015 is a case of a compromised intellectual running a protracted ideological battle between “Fulani brotherhood and independence of INEC”; leading to chronic conflict of interest. INEC under Prof Yakubu remains thousands of miles away from being independent or unbiased electoral umpire,” SBCHROs said.

Alleging that there are “other rigging templates hatched by INEC”, the group said: “By the sudden shift, INEC has disenfranchised millions of Nigerian registered voters, especially those who traveled hundreds of kilometers to connect their ancestral communities where they registered to vote. Such people, on return to their bases early next week having been frustrated or angered; may not have fresh transport fares or energies to embark on fresh voting journeys.

“Others must have been frustrated or angered and resolved to stay off polling units on the rescheduled dates and the costs of staying put in their ancestral communities till next weekend may be too much for them to bear.

“The total economic effects of the sudden shift must have been projected to cost Nigerians billions of naira losses.

“The sudden shift must have further aimed by INEC and its central ruling paymasters to cripple its main challengers financially by making sure that their “last minute mobilization funds” must have been disbursed to their party agents and other stakeholders before the late night announcement of the sudden shift so as to further incapacitate them financially ahead of the new rescheduled date (next week Saturday).

“The sudden shift is most likely designed to facilitate psychological rigging in favor of the Commission’s paymasters by offering a fresh opportunity for the Islamist oligarchs to secure another brainwashed jumaat message next Friday to teeming northern Muslim adherents and induce or force them into unwillingly voting for the central ruling party and its presidential candidate.

“The sudden shift may have also been designed as a strategic advantage for the central Islamist ruling cabal to have an edge over the Northern Islamic populations particularly among the “Fulani Gida” (sedentary Fulani) and original Hausa Muslim populations. Mr. Muhammadu Buhari is widely believed among Northern Muslim population to belong to “Fulani Daji” or Fulanis of the Forest while Mr. Atiku Abubakar is said to belong to “Fulani Gida” (Home or sedentary Fulani Muslim population). Members of the former are said to be prone to widespread violence and bloodletting including sustained attacks and bloodletting unleashed in recent years against Christians and their churches in Nigeria.

“Part of the many rigging templates or plans of INEC and its central ruling paymasters was the botched Election Eve massacre of innocent Christians including women and children by mass murderers strongly and independently believed to be members of violent “Fulani Daji” jihadists.

“The massacre which occurred in Christian dominated Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State is circumstantially linked to recent inflammatory or verbal violent utterances of Gov Nasiru el-Rufai, who threatened the foreign election observers with mass deaths and wrapping and exporting their bodies in “body bags”. Gov el-Rufai has never hidden his contempt for religious harmony and zealotry against Christian religion and universal democratic and human rights culture.

“The death figure in the massacre given by the Government of Kaduna State as “66” is likely to be over one hundreds or in hundreds. The massacre was not perpetrated by “unknown gunmen” as falsely claimed by the State Government but by the “known” Fulani Daji jihadists masquerading as “Fulani Herdsmen”. Members of the Jihadist Fulani Daji population have also become the newest arrival in the annals of Nigeria’s political death squads.

“The massacre of the mainly Christian citizens must have geared towards inflicting political fears and conquest among the Southern Kaduna Christian population.

“The sudden shift in the date of the Presidential Poll is viewed as a deliberate act and a pre-determined replication of the recent Osun State Governorship experience, designed to frustrate and scare away independent voters so that INEC and its goons will have a field day to cheat and manipulate the voting process with “robotic and dead” voting figures.

“Part of the INEC many rigging templates or plans was the recent suspicious infernos that hit the Commission three times in twelve days targeting and destroying the Commission’s sensitive materials including Card Readers and PVCs in Abia, Anambra and Plateau States as well as coordinated burning of PVCs and TPCs in some locations in Abuja.

“INEC had before the sudden shift hatched an ethically biased plan to deliberately deny PVC subscribers in Eastern Nigeria, Christian communities in Northern Nigeria and Igbo dominated areas of the Southwest opportunities of obtaining their PVCs. Many of those that visited their collection centers went home disappointed and without their PVCs; whereas their Northern Muslim counterparts and most members of the Southwest population have had their own collected with ease.

“As published by some leading national dailies and other online media, the Prof Mahmood Yakubu led INEC has serious and undeniable conflict of interest to contend with. As graphically disclosed by Mr. Atiku Abubakar, the main opposition party’s presidential candidate in the now botched Feb 16 but shifted presidential and fed legislative polls, the owner of the company hired by INEC to print PVCs, supply and program Card Readers is also the APC Senatorial Candidate for Zone B Senatorial Zone in Niger State.

“The name of the Senatorial Candidate is Mr. Mohammed Sani Musa and his company name which he is the MD is the Activate Technologies Ltd (formerly Act Technologies Ltd). See Atiku’s statement here: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/313157-atiku-alleges-plot-by-apc-to-rig-Saturdays presidential-election.html

“By the recent account of Guardian Int’l Newspaper, Nigeria, too, the present INEC leadership may have been involved in gross manipulation of the country’s National Register of Voters or electoral demographic database. This allegation amounts to the return of Maurice Iwu’s “animated and in-animated National Register of Voters” when the Voters’ Register was flooded or filled with dead voters and non-human objects and used to rig several public office holders into power.

“The latest INEC pattern as exposed by the Guardian Newspaper of 15^th Feb 2019 is nothing short of serious scientific manipulation or pre-election scientific rigging. By the Guardian Newspaper’s digital or scientific analysis, “INEC may have overshot the present total registered voting population bearing PVCs with additional millions of “robotic voters” so as to favor the present central ruling Government in the now botched Feb 16 but rescheduled Presidential Poll”.

“The respected Newspaper further raised concerns over the 2015 results that produced Buhari as Nigeria’s sixth civilian president. According to the Paper, “Both documents (at its disposal) showed 29.4 million votes were cast in the 2015 presidential poll. But according to the original results, 31.7 million accredited voters participated in the election, whereas in the second set of results, that figure dropped to 23.6 million. The discrepancy suggests an additional 6 million accredited voters, far more than the APC’s winning margin – as per the original result set – of 2.6 million votes”. More details of the Guardian Newspaper’s analysis are contained here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/15/revealed-nigerian-voter-data-is-statistically-impossible

“As if these were not enough, on Thursday, 14^th Feb 2019, 14 sacks of ballot papers were intercepted in Kano state filled with already thumb printed papers for the central ruling party. As expected, the Nigeria Police Force turned around and claimed that the seized ballot papers “were merely “specimen” papers to educate voters”.

“Also few days to the now botched and shifted poll, scores of young Fulani youths were arrested during “stop-and-search” exercise by security agents near Numan in Adamawa State. In the course of same, they were caught with multiple voters cards with each possessing as much as five PVCs. The arrested Fulani youths were between the ages of 12 and 15 (under age and multiple voters). The incident happened in the presence of an independent witness. This is a further confirmation of high incidences of crimes of alien, minor and multiple voting in Northern Nigeria particularly among the Muslim population.

“The Buhari Government’s party chief has publicly not hidden the rigging penchant of the central Administration. Mr. Adams Oshiomole has recently revealed the truth with a slip of the tongue at a press conference in September. According to him: “for democracy to flourish, only people who can accept the pain of rigging – sorry, defeat – should participate in an election”.

“It is part of INEC and its central ruling paymasters’ many rigging templates or plans for the same ruling party to falsely and publicly cry foul even when it is a public knowledge that it masterminds all the sinister plots in conjunction with INEC. For instance, the attitude of the central ruling Government publicly “blaming” the main opposition party for “causing” today’s early morning sudden shift in the date of the Poll or “accusing” INEC of planning to rig the poll in favor of “PDP” is nothing short of diverting public attention and misleading all Nigerians and members of the international community.

“It is also part of INEC’s many rigging plans to have refused to introduce and allow for electronic voting to exist side by side with manual voting in Nigeria. This would have exposed and put to final rest or end the constant and widespread incidences of alien voter registration and voting, multiple registration and voting, under age registration and voting, vote buying, over securitization of election, electioneering insecurity, voter apathy, lopsided vote registration and issuance of PVCs; among other poll related misconducts or anomalies in Nigeria or any part thereof.”

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