The All Progressives
Congress (APC) has
accused INEC of
being economical with the
truth by saying only the
courts can order
the cancellation of last
Saturday's governorship
election in Anambra,
in which about 1.3 million
of the 1.7 million
registered voters
were nable to exercise
their franchise.
In a statement issued in
Lagos on Tuesday by its
Interim National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, the party
reminded INEC that it did
not wait for a court order
to cancel the National
Assembly
elections in 2011, when it
was obvious that many
voters across the country
could not vote due to the
late arrival or non-delivery
of voting materials.
"'In announcing the
cancellation of the
National Assembly
election in 2011,
INEC Chairman
Attahiru Jega
said, among others,
that it was to
' maintain the
integrity of the
elections and retain
effective overall
control of the
process '."
APC said the situation in
Anambra last Saturday
was even more
serious because, in
addition to the fact that
voting materials were
either late or not delivered
at all, most voters
were disenfranchised by
an INEC official who
apparently tampered with
the 2011 Voters' Register
for the state.
''Therefore, there are more
compelling reasons now
to cancel the Anambra
governorship election than
what led to the
cancellation and
rescheduling of the
National Assembly
election in 2011, unless of
course INEC is still acting
out the script handed to it
for the ill-fated election,''
the party said.
It also said since the
integrity of the 2011
Voters' Register has
been compromised by
tampering, that register
can no longer be relied
upon by INEC to organize
any election in Nigeria.
''The emerging allegations
are very serious. First, the
Voters' Register for
Anambra has been
allegedly tampered with
by an INEC official to
disenfranchise a huge
number of voters, to such
an extent that only
451,826 voters were
accredited out of the
1,763,751 registered
voters in Anambra State.
''Secondly, the
disenfranchisement
started from the data
capturing stage, when the
machine was apparently
manipulated not to
capture those whose
names start with 'O' or 'U',
and that is a whole lot of
people. Against this
background, it is
obvious to all fair-minded
people, not the rabidly
partisan PDP, that
INEC's computer data-
base must have been
fraudulently, irreparably
and totally adulterated
such that no credible
Voters' Register can
anymore be produced
from the 2011 voters'
registration data.
''That is why we are not
just calling for the
cancellation of
the Anambra governorship
election, but also saying
that even a fresh election
cannot and must not be
conducted on the basis of
the 2011 Voters' Register.
Unless Nigeria embarks
on another
voters' registration
exercise, it is doubtful if
INEC has the ability to
ameliorate the damages
already done to 2011
registration information by
its corrupt and inept
officials.
''That is why we are
calling on Prof. Jega not
to withhold the name
of the main saboteur in
Saturday's poll, and to
also investigate the level
to which the Voters'
Register has been
compromised, fish out
all those involved, find out
who their sponsors are
and make all of them to
face justice,'' APC said.
Meanwhile, the party has
described as very strange
indeed the role of the
presidency and the PDP in
the ongoing debate over
the Anambra election.
''The conventional wisdom
is that political parties
take their bearing from
their candidates on
election day. But in the
case of the PDP and the
Presidency, not only have
they abandoned their
candidate in the
Anambra poll, who
himself has derided the
election and called for
its cancellation, they have
also disowned him by
going ahead to hail
the poll as free and fair.
''It is now glaring to all
that the disgrace that
INEC has suffered from
the Anambra debacle is
because the electoral
body is acting out the
script written by the
Presidency and APGA for
the election. The claim by
the PDP spokesman that
our party is trying to
discredit the entire
electoral process is as
shallow as it is laughable.
''Pray, how more can you
discredit an election that
the organizer itself (INEC)
has admitted was
sabotaged by its own
officials? Is it the APC
that revealed the
information concerning
the role of
INEC saboteurs? Did the
PDP candidate find his
name on the voters'
register used for
Saturday's election?
Obviously, things have
fallen apart in the
contraption called the
PDP and the centre can
no long hold there,'' it
said.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
Interim National Publicity
Secretary
All Progressives Congress
(APC)
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