By Ishaya Ibrahim
A not-for-profit forensic organisation, TAPI has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission personally took an active role in rigging the September 21, 2024 election for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a report on its website, TAPI said INEC manipulated over 1,000 result sheets out of the about 4,500 of the results used in the election.
According to the organization, what INEC adhoc staff uploaded as polling unit level results on IReV were different from the results the commission used in compiling and declaring a winner.
The organisation said it confirmed the fraud by obtaining certified true copy of results it obtained from INEC and compared them with those uploaded on IReV.
Recall that in the Edo election,
Senator Monday Okpebholo of the APC defeated the PDP’s Asue Ighodalo. He gained 291,667 votes against 247,274 for Ighodalo.
But TAPI said the result of the election was fraudulently cooked up by INEC.
The report reads: “Did INEC forge its own result sheets? Our findings clearly indicate that the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) may have produced —or even forged—two separate result sheets (Forms EC8A-C) with same serial numbers for the purposes of collating results in the September 21st Governorship Election in Edo State.
“The evidence highlights that a fresh set of result sheets may have been generated and falsified by the commission after collation had ended. The aforesaid results are separate and distinct from the original Forms EC8A-C Result sheets deployed for the conduct of the Election and signed by Party Agents at the respective Polling Units, Ward RACs, and LGA Collation centers during the exercise.
“How do we know this?
“We obtained certified true copies (CTCs) of the election results. Shockingly, the figures in the certified copies differ significantly from what was uploaded onto INEC’s own iRev platform. We observed these discrepancies in about 1,000 out of 4,519 polling units in Edo State.
“Both sets of result sheets Form EC8A-C relate to the exact same Polling units in the respective LGAs. The serial number of the forms are exactly the same. However, the scores allocated to the various candidates and political parties are completely different. The total number of votes scored by the All Progressives Congress(APC) were significantly increased, while that of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) were reduced.
“Furthermore, unlike the Image 2, there are no Party agent signatures on the far-right column.
“We hired a forensic expert who analysed the CTC copies. He agrees with our assumption. Here is his report below:
“The forensic expert shows INEC CTC copies, the basis upon which All Progressives Congress(APC) Governorship Candidate, Monday Okpebholo was declared winner of the September 21st Guber Election in Edo State were written by the same person (i.e forged by the organisation charged with conducting the elections).”
