Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the acting Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to immediately intervene in the alleged forgery of documents at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the acting IGP’s action was needed to protect democracy in the country.
The right group said it was alleged that INEC officials forged records of the 2023 elections, which they gave to litigants and defendants in the ongoing post election litigation at the various election petition tribunals
“The new IGP who has been served with this specific petition emanating from the Senatorial election involving the immediate past Ebonyi State governor Mr. Dave Umahi, must swiftly investigate the damning allegations made by the candidate of the Labour Party in that Senate poll Honourable Linus Okorie and if there is any merit in this extensively damaging allegations of forgery, the immediate past Ebonyi State governor should immediately be arrested, investigated and if found culpable, should be prosecuted.
” Not forgetting the INEC officials directly alleged to have falsified the documents allegedly in favour of the past governor of Ebonyi State. Our democracy is on the verge of collapse due to the oozing smell of manipulations committed by INEC,” HURIWA’s Onwubiko said.
Onwubiko who presented a subsisting petition against an Assistant Director-Data, INEC headquarters, Deputy Director- INEC and Senator David Umahi which has been submitted to the office of the Inspector General of Police, said the issue bordered on alleged criminal acts of conspiracy and forgery of INEC documents with the intent to pervert justice in the Ebonyi State National and State Assembly Petition and to compromise the democratic process in Nigeria.
Part of the petition, which was written by the petitioner’s lawyer, read in parts : “Our services have been retained by Hon. Linus Abaa Okorie, who is herein after referred to as our client and on whose express instructions we present this petition to your office.
It is our firm brief that our client contested for the Senatorial Seat of Ebonyi South Senatorial District in Ebonyi State under the platform of Labour Party (LP); whilst Engr. Nweze David Umahi contested for the same Senatorial
Seat under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) during the general election conducted by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the 25th of February, 2023.
Background
It is our brief that following the said election conducted by INEC. The documented records of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System [BVAS) of Nigerian voters who participated in the election were retained in Custody of INEC
Our client further informed us that following the outcome of February 25. 2023 election, Engr. Nweze David Urnahi was declared winner and Senator-Elect for Ebonyi South Senatorial District, on the basis of which our client filed an Election Petition at the National and State House of Assembly Election Tribunal challenging the result of the said election.
Our client also informed us that following his filing of the Election Petition challenging the outcome of the elections, the following facts began to unfold:
a) That our client through his counsel, B. A. Azebi & Partners applied to the INEC Headquarters for a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the BVAS Accreditation Report of data for Ebonyi South Senatorial District; and a CTC of the BVAS report dated 25th March, 2023 and its Certificate of compliance as Computer Generated Documents dated 24/03/2023 were issued by INEC. Copy of the CTC of the BVAS report for the Presidential and National Assembly Election of 25th February, 2023 for Ebonyi South Senatorial District and the issued Certificate of Compliance are herein attached and marked as ANNEXURE 1
b) That Engr. Nweze David Umahi who is the 2nd Respondent in the Election Petition filed 2nd Respondent’s Reply to our client’s Petition, which process has on its pages11, 12, 13 and 14 ‘Particulars of Votes Objected to’ and also presented certain falsified figures as BVAS Accreditation figures, with the sole intent of misleading the election tribunal and perverting the course of justice. Copies of the marked pages of the said REPLY are herein attached and marked ANNEXURE 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D
c) That part of the documents filed by Engr. Nweze David Umahi in the Election Petition is a CTC of the BVAS Accreditation Report dated 6th April, 2023 with the Certificate of Compliance dated 05/04/2023 purported to have been issued by INEC and submitted as part of the records the tribunal should rely on in the course of trial. That the said report was certified….. and the certificate of compliance as computer generated evidence endorsed……, Copy of the CTC of the said BAS Presidential and National Assembly Election of 25th February, 2023 for Ebonyi South Senatorial District and the issued Certificate of Compliance are herein attached and marked as ANNEXURE 3
d) That our client having noted the two conflicting CTCS of BVAS Accreditation Report issued by INEC for the same Ebonyi South Senatorial District, then prepared a report that captured for each Polling Unit, the BVAS report of 25th March 2023 and also the figures in the BVAS report of 6th April, 2023, as well as the actual accreditation figures in the results published by INEC for each Poling Unit (FORM EC8A(1);: the intent Of which was to highlight which BVAS Report tallied with the declared result f the election. Copy of the Discrepancy Report is hereby attached and marked ANNEXURE 4
e) That on account of the noted discrepancy and suspected forgery of the BVAS report purported to have been issued by INEC to Engr. Nweze David Umahi, our client through his counsel, Messrs. Yusuf O. Ali & Co, and by a letter dated 18th May. 2023 requested INEC to confirm the authentic report between the BVAS Report of 25th March, 2023 (ANNEXURE A) and the BVAS report of 6th May. 2023 (ANNEXURE B).”
HURIWA expressed hope that the new acting IGP, who has expressed his full readiness to discharge his duties, would wade into the allegations to protect Nigeria’s democracy.
The rights group quoted the acting IGP during his decoration on Tuesday by Vice President Kashim Shettima, as saying, “I feel like a lion in me, ready to devour all the internal enemies of Nigeria. That’s my feeling right now.”
“The VP performed the decoration alongside the wife of the new Police helmsman, Mrs Elizabeth Egbetokun, barely 24 hours after a major shake-up in the country’s security leadership.
In a drastic change of guard on Monday night, President Bola Tinubu approved the immediate retirement of the Chief of Defence Staff, all the nation’s service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali, as well as the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali.
Tinubu consequently appointed Nuhu Ribadu as National Security Adviser; Maj. Gen. C.G Musa, Chief of Defence Staff; Maj. Gen. T. A Lagbaja, Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla, Chief of Naval Staff; AVM H.B Abubakar, Chief of Air Staff, DIG Kayode Egbetokun, Acting Inspector-General of Police; and Maj. Gen. EPA Undiandeye, Chief of Defence Intelligence.
