A pro-democracy group under the aegis of Africa Centre for Electoral Reform, ACER, has raised an alarm over an alleged plot by an aide to the Nasarawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Dr. Uthman Ajidagba, to tamper with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS.
The Convener of the group, Joseph Ayuba-Ewuga, in a Petition signed on Wednesday, claimed that the Personal Assistant to the REC, Hamza Mohammed-Musa, was hatching plans to subvert the electoral process in favour of candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.
According to Mr Ayuba-Ewuga, the aide has offered himself as machinery for all manner of dirty jobs, including faking some INEC documents to favour some politicians with cases in court.
The activist further alleged that Mohammed-Musa had been holding a series of meetings secretly with some high-profile politicians in the state.
According to him, the meetings were part of the plans to hack the BVAS so as to redirect votes in favour of APC candidates.
“He is using his privilege of being an aide to the REC who is known to be a person of integrity to rubbish his hard-earned reputation.
“The aide, in connivance with some INEC staff, has put a strategy in place to ensure that all the BVAS to be deployed to strong-holds of opposition parties across the state is cloned or made to malfunction during the elections.
“It is on record that the APC is going to face stiff competition, especially during the Senate and House of Representatives elections. They know that and they are doing everything possible to stop that from happening,” Mr Ayuba-Ewuga added.
The convener lamented that such a plot should not be allowed to be hatched considering the enormity of the damage it could do to the electoral process.
He said: “We can’t afford to allow the INEC to lose its integrity or allow the democratic process to be subverted in favour of some pocket few politicians who do not mean well for our people.
“We are mindful of the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari has given the INEC an upper hand to conduct credible elections in the country.
“We will, therefore, not allow some selfish individuals to scuttle the chances of further entrenching democracy in the country.”
But when contacted for comment on the allegations, the National Commissioner and Chairman on Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, did not return calls put across to him, including a text message sent to his mobile line.
Source: DailyNigerian
