- REC says allegation baseless
From Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Cross River Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm over alleged plans by Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof Gabriel Yomere, some collation officers and top government officials to temper with already declared results sheets and manipulate BVAS machines used for the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
The PDP said reliable sources from Government House, Calabar, have also revealed that there have been a series of meetings between INEC officers and government officials on how to reconcile the results announced in the last elections ahead of the tribunal sitting in the state.
The PDP State Publicity Secretary, Mr Mike Ojisi, in a statement claimed that the INEC REC, Professor Gabriel Yomere, and the team from Government House are trying to tackle the issue of alleged overvoting and some mutilations noticed at the polling unit results to tally with the number of votes declared at collation centres.
According to Ojisi, “they had a meeting on Saturday night trying to come up with modalities on how they can look at declared results in each local government to tally with declared results, especially where they suspect overvoting.”
“We are worried and called for genuine efforts to protect the election materials from deliberate manipulation.
“We are informed that the REC has been calling the Supervisory Polling Officers (SPOs) Electoral Officers (EOs) of each LG, and the Returning Officers (ROs) to bring out all the BVAS within each polling unit across the state that has over voting in the just concluded elections.
“With the BVAS, they would be able to thumbprint additional ballots papers to balance the votes and the number of persons that were accreditated in each of the polling units across the state,” adding that “arrangements have commenced today.”
The party spokesperson called on stakeholders and relevant agencies to demand the original results sheets used in announcing the results from REC before they temper with it.
Dismissing the allegations as false, the Cross River REC, Prof Gabriel Yomere, said: “There is no truth in the allegations that I am meeting with the governor and his team in order to reconcile and manipulate the electoral materials used for the gunner election.
“The last time I met with the governor was shortly before Christmas and I went with my team, that was shortly before I travelled for Christmas. Even if I succeed in manipulating the BVAS, what about the backend at the INEC portal? You can’t manipulate that.
“The only people allowed to check the BVAS are the lawyers to the political parties and they do that in the presence of INEC staff.”