(UMUAHIA)
Attempts by suspected Peoples Democratic Party Chieftains/Government in Abia state to unconditionally release the six members of staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), arrested on Tuesday in Umuahia for allegedly attempting to take away seven card readers and result sheets from the commission’s office has been uncovered.
A highly dependable source at Zone 9 headquaters, Umuahia said that the Party leadership had made ”mouth watering” and irresistible monetary offer to the Authorities in Zone 9, ”to release the suspects and kill the report, but their offer was turned down due to what they desctribed as the sensitive nature of the matter.
The source, which spoke to Daily Sun on condition of anonymity said that the state Party leadership was ”jittery” that the arrested persons ”might spill the milk” and expose the way the governorship result was manipulated to favour the PDP candidate against the candidate of APGA, Dr. Alex Otti.
The source further said that ”it is not clear yet whether Zone 9 has agred to play ball to kill the case because the offer can be made through their bank accounts “without my knowledge.”
It was speculated that a higly placed government Officla personally went to meet the AIG in his quarters to solicit his ”immediate intervention before the matter would get to the press.”
It was also learnt that the card readers and the result sheets were deployed in Obingwa Local Government Area, where a whooping 82,240 votes were credited to PDP as against 1,952.
votes for APGA, even when elections did not take place in the area. Sources at INEC said that no card reader was used for accreditation in Obingwa, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo and Isialangwa North Local Government Areas during the governorship poll.
Meanwhile, confessional statements by the arrested INEC staff showed that the card readers were being taken away so that ”ICT experts can manipulate them to support the number of votes ”criminally” allocated to PDP governorship candidate in the election.”
It cvould be recalled that the Head of Department of Information and Communication Technology ICT of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Abia state, Mr Herbert Ejiofor and one of his staff , Nmandi Nwabuko were handed over to Zone 9 Police In Umuahia, after they were arrested by 6.20 p. om tuesday the police in INEC, while moving out from the premises of the Commission, with seven card readers machines, result sheets of Osisioma LGA, Isisalangwa North LGA and Obingwa LGA.
Other members of staff numbering about four were also arrested for their roles in the dirty deals.
They were alleged to be taking the sensitive materials to an ICT expert to manipulate and perfect the results of the troubled areas said to have been won by the Peoples Democratic party with a result margin that is too large to be believed.
They were arrested with a Toyota Camry Saloon Car , marked AKD 702 CZ, owned by Nwabuko, a staff working in INEC ICT in Umnuahia, Abia state.
Speaking to newsmen, Chief Eng.Mike Chidi Ahiabike, the Head of Intelligence for Surveillance for APGA said that he learnt of the plot to perfect the plans of the rigging in the two troubled ares of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North after the election and put surveillance at work.
According to him, the first information uncovered was plans by some people to burn down the INEC Office in Obingwa which failed.
“Mr Chima Ekwuribe , the supervisor who perpetrated the act producing the contentious result took his men to the Local Government to mutilate the incidence forms, thereby trying to clean up all evidence that would make anybody to know what they have done to get that 82, 000 votes since card reader was not actually used. We decided to g to Obingwa and when they got wind of it, they disapeared, only to link up with the HOD ICT of INEC Mr Ejimofor, requesting for Obingwa card reader, to see if they could manipulate it, and when they found out that they could not reach agreement, they left and agreed to meet on Monday. We placed our people on red alert , only for us to get the information that last night , Mr Nnamdi, the ICT man in charge of Obingwa tried to get away with the card readers from Obingwa before he was arrested by some policemen.
“They have been working on it for the past one week and decided to execute it last night, but unfortunately,a new police officer that was deployed to INEC stormed there and before he could get help from other officers, they were able to remove some materials from the car booth. There is a conspiracy between INEC staff , security agencies to reconcile the 82,000 votes, from Obingwa, 42,000 from Osisioma and the one of Isialangwa North which they said PDP amassed during the governorship polls. The whole exercise is geared towards reconciling the huge figures they have written,” Ahiabike said.
He called on the authorities to ensure that this matter is not swept under the carpets “because this is what we suspect that they are doing . We learnt that they already offered N2,000,000 to the policemen that caught them,” Ahiabike alleged.
Speaking to journalists, the Resident Electoral Officer, Professor Selina Okoh , who conformed the arrest said that she was aware of the incident.
“I was told that there is a vehicle of one of our staff , used in moving sensitive materials out of the premises of INEC, and on trying to find out, I found out that it was true and I asked them when I heard of it, “do you mean that you were moving out of this premises with sensitive materials, without telling me, who authorized it?
“There was no authorization to move materials out of this place. The long and short of it is that I have handed them over to the police. The police asked for the person, the car, the materials including the card readers and the HOD, ICT and I told them to take them away. I learnt that they were moving out seven card readers from the premises and it is now left for the police to investigate and find out what their mission was and know details.
“All I did was to go to the car and then asked them and they said that they were going to work with it, and I asked them, without my permission? But since the police is already involved, I will leave the police to do their work.
“I came here in January and have been working with all these people and if I say that I trust him and he is found guilty, it means that I have trusted somebody I shouldn’t have trusted in the first place and if I say I don’t trust him, I have to show why I don’t trust him .The HOD ICT and the staff working in ICT that was taking these things out, the man, in whose car booth , these things were found, one Nnamdi Nwabuko.
Journalists who visited the AIG Zone 9, Mr Usman Gwarri ealier were told by the AIG that no crime had been established, adding that the matter had not been officially reported to them.
“You can not establish any crime until investigation is completed and if you can not establish any crime, why should you detain somebody,” he queried, adding that , there was no need to detain the suspects.”
However, it was not known as at press time if the suspect were released or still in the custody of Zone 9 as the AIG said that they were investigating the matter and would come out with verdict on whether the suspects have committed a crime or not.
When Prof Okoh was informed of the AIG, Zone 9’s response, that a formal complaints had not been made to them by INEC, she responded thus: “The AIG? but he sent an Officer who introduced himself as the person coming from AIG, how can he tell you that we haven’t made any formal complaint, we didn’t make any, but he heard of it and sent somebody, maybe he dosen’t want to be open to you. But since it is a police matter now, the police is suppose to do what they are suppose to do, investigate and take the right action, if they want information from INEC, we will provide. I want them to investigate it properly, I am condemning the action, why wont I condemn it. I am in charge and they are taking things out without my approval.
“And I don’t know if this is the first time something like this is happening, it is just that this one was brought to my knowledge this morning and that is why I have allowed the police to take them away because they didn’t get my consent. If they had not been caught at the gate yesterday, I wouldn’t have known,” Okoh said.
She said further: “Nobody can tamper with the result sheet without detection because once it is tampered with there is evidence of it. I am not saying that they wont attempt tampering I am saying that if it is done, there would be evidence. After all the agents have their copies, the police have their copies…”
She confirmed an attempt “to burn down the INEC office in Obingwa through the window but the chairs refused to burn… I told the CP to beef up the security around our property there.
“It was yesterday evening that the security people saw them while going through the booths of their car and refused that the car would move out of the premises. And this morning the police came in and the AIG sent their officers to come and pick the HOD and the owner of the car.
“If they had taken permission that they were taking the materials out of the premises, I wouldn’t have approved it because even myself, I find it difficult to take such documents out of the premises to my home. Because assuming , I take it out , I may be looking for it. I wouldn’t authorize such a thing. The only sensitive materials I have taken out of this place is when my boss, the INEC boss in Abuja ask me to send anything to him, other wise I don’t do that. ”
Meanwhile, more INEC staff in Umuahai have been arrested today for electoral fraud involving card reader machine for Obingwa LGA. They include Amauche Edi Dike(ICT), Charles Mba(ICT), Nkem Ichita(ICT), Esther David(REC’S Secretary), Uche Enyioma(ICT), and Innocent Dire (EPM).
(Chuks Onuoha, THE SUN)
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