Igini said gunmen would seize voting materials and presiding officers to an unknown location
By Ishaya Ibrahim
A former Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, has exposed the rigging template that would be deployed in tomorrow’s Governorship and House of Assembly elections by desperate politicians in some states.
Igini, while speaking as a guest on the Africa Independent Television programme’s The Election Situation Room on Friday, said two governors from the South South and South East, used the template in the last election and have popularized the trick.
He said the plan of the politicians is to get around the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and ensure that their preferred candidates are declared winners at all costs.
He said since the BVAS deprives the politicians from inflating votes, they have resorted to a more dangerous method.
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According to Igini, the desperate politicians would most likely deploy gun-wielding thugs at about 1pm when voting was long underway to select polling units. The gunmen would then seize the voting materials and the presiding officers to an unknown location, the ex REC said.
Igini said at the location, they would check the BVAS to see how many people have already been accredited and voted.
“If for example,150 persons have been accredited and voted, they would then destroy the thumb printed ballot papers. Fresh ones would then be thumb printed. They could then give about 130 votes to their party and allocate the remaining 20 votes to the other political parties,” Igini said.
When asked what happened with the delayed transmission of the presidential election results to the INEC’s result viewing portal, Igini said he too is still eager to know what happened.