From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), has hailed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for uncovering and deleting over 2.7 million fake registrations and identifying 23 personnel who carried out the fake voter registrations.
CUPP in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere said INEC confirmation has vindicated the opposition parties who uncovered the Imo APC-sponsored plot last month.
INEC on Wednesday said it identified 23 of its staff who were identified as being behind the fake registrations and compromise of the voters’ registration exercise.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, at the third quarterly meeting with political parties said after a rigorous clean-up of the data using the automated biometric identification system (ABIS), 2,780,756 (22.6%) of the registrants were identified as ineligible and invalidated.
The Coalition also said that with this, Governor Hope Uzodinma has been disgraced and his ‘Omuma’ magic deleted.
The opposition parties, therefore, called on the Inspector-General of Police to do the needful by arresting those behind this evil act.
They also called on him to ensure the release of INEC Staff, Chidiebere currently in detention in Imo state.
CUPP said: “At a meeting today, INEC confirmed our intelligence discovery. The INEC Chairman had said that after a rigorous cleaning-up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), a total of 2,780,756 (22.6%) were identified as ineligible registrants and invalidated from the record, among them double/multiple registrants, underaged persons and outrightly fake registrations.
“The Commission deployed thousands of diligent staff for the CVR exercise and the vast majority of them discharged their duties conscientiously. Unfortunately, a few of them did not. The fictitious registrations were carried out by some of our Registration Officers involved in the field exercise and could easily be traced.
“Each registration machine is operated using an access code tied to a dedicated e-mail assigned to staff. There is therefore an audit trail that gives the total number of persons registered by each official involved in the registration exercise.
“In some cases, some of them made as many as 40 attempts or more to register one fake voter. As a result, the Commission has so far identified 23 Registration Officers involved in this unethical conduct and disciplinary action has commenced.
“INEC has done the needful by deleting these fake registrations. We the IG of Police to arrest the culprits. Yet again Uzodinma APC-led government has been disgraced and their plot to rig the election was thwarted. We at the opposition will not rest, we will continue to do the needful, and ensure that Nigerians get the free and fair election they deserve.”