March 01, (THEWILL) – The Cross River state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party says a staff of INEC Interfered with the BVAS machine during the by-elections for Ogoja/Yala federal constituency by-elections.
The state chairman of the party Venatius Ikem disclosed this in Calabar while officially reacting to the outcome of the elections.
The party also demanded an investigation into the activities of the commission’s national commissioner, Festus Okoye, and said he should no longer conduct elections in the state.
According to Ikem, “We demand that the INEC investigates her staff, especially one Mr. Toyin an Assistant Director or Deputy Director in the Commission’s office in Calabar in charge of the IT unit with a view to unraveling his interference with the BVAS machines deployed for the election in which he claimed that 5 units were missing before the election which are alleged to have suddenly emerged at election centers.
“We demand that Mr. Festus Okoye be equally investigated and never again posted for election duty to Cross River state, because he has shown clearly that he comes here at the behest of Governor Ayade and to do his dirty work of subverting the will of the electorate in the state.
“Most importantly, we demand that INEC should produce all BVAS machines used for the election to ascertain if the accreditation recorded in the machines corresponds with the number of votes declared by the returning officer in the February 26 by-election,” he said.
The party chairman insisted that the election was characterized by massive irregularities and also called for the disbandment of all special units under the governor’s office which was used to manipulate the outcome of the election.
“The by-election was characterized by massive irregularities including violence orchestrated by the APC led government and her officials who snatched ballot boxes and other election materials at gunpoint and manipulated the results to their
advantage.
“We demand as a matter of urgency the disbandment of the special police units under the Chief Security Officer of the governor which he is using for thuggery and political purposes, reigning mayhem on innocent voters, contrary to all expectations of a neutral state security outfit,” the PDP in the state demanded.
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THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
