The portrait of a convicted terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, popularly referred to as the “Underwear Bomber”, is in one of the ‘voters’ registers’ in circulation ahead of today’s gubernatorial election in Edo State.
Abdulmutallab was convicted in the United States of attempting to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear on board an airline from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25, 2009. Governor Adams Oshiomhole made the allegation yesterday when he raised the alarm on the existence of a fake voter’s register in the state.
Speaking during a visit to the governor by the United States Consul General in Lagos, Mr. F John Bray, Oshiomhole said he was shocked to see the portrait of the “underwear bomber” in the fake register, but with a Benin name. Oshiomhole, who raised concern about the duplication of the voters’ register by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said: “Right now, we have evidence of two versions of voters’ register – the one they have officially been distributed and the one that some elements within the ICT in INEC have also produced in Abuja.
And what they have done in the past, which we hear they want to re-enact again, is that whereas they will display one voters’ register which is reasonably accurate, there are still some flaws, but let me say it is about 85 per cent accurate, they also have a fake one which they intend to bring and spring a surprise in certain locations where they believe that they have no chance, and when the voters go there and you find a voters’ register different from the one that you know, there will be confusion in those voting centres.
“For example, I was shocked to find the portrait of Mr. Abdulmutalab, and that will interest your Excellency, the young man who has been jailed in the US for a terrorist act. His portrait is in the fake voters’ register with a Benin name under it. I am sure if you look at the face, if we don’t know the face, you the US officials know the face. And you find the name under it, that it is a Benin name in Ovia South West.”
He said INEC has enlisted some members of the opposition as election observers. “Last night, in my local government, one of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, who incidentally is on the list of INEC observers, I can be very specific, one Tenebe, we have information that he got boys around and they were shooting, but the police went to apprehend them; they engaged the police in a shooting.
The police had to go and reinforce. As we speak, I don’t have information as to how that was settled. If you have people like this engaged in violence, then it poses a challenge.” “Unfortunately, it takes more than one hand in this case to achieve a free and fair election. All the political parties must be committed to putting away this thing. “So we have quite a number of locations now where we know PDP has a lot of these criminals.
We are also not satisfied the way INEC manages observers. It has become a business. All manners of criminals and unemployed persons, all under-employed persons or greedy people, they have become mercenaries available,” he said. Oshiomhole said the state government is totally committed to a free, fair and credible election.
The United States Consul General, who led a delegation of election observers to the Government House, said, “we will all be watching this election very closely.” But INEC denied the allegation of registering PDP members as election observers. Mr. Nick Dazang, Deputy Director Voter Education and Publicity, INEC, said no member of the PDP was accredited as election observer in Edo. Meanwhile, the PDP said it has uncovered plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to announce fake result of today’s governorship election in Edo State.
The plot, according the party, which was hatched in connivance with INEC, included the distribution of fake results sheets to polling units in different areas of the state. In a statement yesterday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, PDP further alleged that APC is planning to use INEC’s “Local Government Collation Officers to write fictitious results on real results sheets of some local government areas.”
It said that despite the warnings of President Muhammadu Buhari to INEC and security agencies, the ruling party in Edo State is planning to use thugs brought into the state from other states to harass and intimidate the citizens of Edo State while security agencies will be used to arrest, harass and intimidate members and supporters of the PDP; and to provide security cover for members of the APC to execute their nefarious plots.
Also, the Edo State chapter of the PDP said it had uncovered a plot by the APC, acting in concert with INEC to rig today’s election in nine local government areas where fake results have been written. Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Chris Ne- hikhare, at a press conference in Benin, alleged that the planned rigging was being coordinated by some highly-placed INEC officials, namely Mrs. Amina Zakari, an INEC national commissioner; Mrs. Imoudu Sule, Edo State INEC Public Relations Officer (PRO); the Delta State REC; and the National Deputy Director of Operations. Nehikhare stated that the plot was specifically under the supervision of Zakari, through the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Delta State.
The PDP spokesman alleged that Mrs. Sule is in charge of the disbursement of money to compromise selected local government electoral officers. He said that so far, Mrs. Sule had distributed N2 million each to nine electoral officers whose local government results are being written before ballots are cast, to favour the ruling APC. But the INEC PRO denied the allegation. “The people I am working with know the kind of person I am. Therefore, anybody can say whatever he or she likes.
My work has to do with publicity,” she told New Telegraph. In another development, the National Assembly caucus of the PDP has accused INEC officials and the Nigeria Police of planning to rig the governorship election in favour of the APC.
The lawmakers, who made the allegations at a press briefing in Abuja, alleged that there was an arrangement between the INEC and APC to issue sensitive materials, particularly result sheets and incident forms to the ruling party before the election to enable them to originate fake results, which would be submitted with the assistance of security men deployed to the state from Abuja.
Minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Leo Ogor, who led the briefing disclosed that the security men from Abuja would act as conveyors into the collation centres, adding that the suspected ‘compromised’ INEC Returning Officers recruited by the APC would declare the fake election results at the police stations and other collation centres under police protection.
The PDP also raised the alarm on the move by the Presidency to place its leaders under security watch. Top on the list of those who have been purportedly watch-listed are former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, former minister of foreign affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, business mogul, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, governorship candidate of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and state chairman of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, among others.
Read more at: New Telegraph
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