Frank Nweke Jnr, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in Enugu State for the March 11, 2023 elections, has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has recruited some staff from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the polls. At a press conference held in Enugu on Friday, Nweke, a former Minister of Information, claimed that INEC officials and ad hoc staff had been instructed to bypass the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System during the election to manipulate the outcome. He further asserted that thugs had been mobilized to create chaos and disrupt the governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state, aiming to disperse voters at polling units to facilitate election rigging and subvert the will of the people.
Nweke stated, “Since suffering massive losses across the state on February 25, 2023, the PDP has held a series of meetings at various locations to perfect their nefarious plans to ensure they disrupt the electoral process, compromise INEC staff, and deploy maximum violence.” He cited a source who attended these meetings, revealing that the PDP members expressed frustration over their previous belief that the BVAS system was foolproof and that manual voting was impossible. They noted that recent events in Port Harcourt and other parts of the country had proven otherwise, prompting them to exploit the situation by offering bribes to INEC staff, buying votes, and using intimidation tactics against voters who did not support them.
According to Nweke, the PDP has resolved to “buy” INEC staff to sabotage the elections and ensure that original result sheets are not brought to polling units or collation centers. He claimed that the compromised INEC team, led by a staff member named Ifenna Onoh, has been the liaison between the state government and INEC officials for years. Nweke alleged that Onoh has benefited from land and pilgrimage allocations in exchange for recruiting staff to serve the interests of the Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. He suggested that significant sums of money, running into hundreds of millions, have been exchanged over the years through third-party agents to conceal the financial transactions. As a result, Onoh is allegedly obligated to ensure the declaration of Peter Mbah as the next Governor of Enugu State.
Nweke also claimed that INEC maintains a secret office at Fontana Hotels in Independence Layout for these activities. Additionally, he alleged that security agencies have been recruited into the plot, with the intention of not intervening during the chaos at polling units and collation centers until the PDP’s plans are executed. He mentioned that they have secured a substantial number of “election duty” stickers, which they plan to use to evade security by moving around in vehicles displaying these stickers. Furthermore, he claimed that they have produced uniforms for thugs to disguise themselves as escorts for INEC personnel, facilitating rigging operations using uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) across the 17 Local Government Areas.
The former Information Minister stated that he has shared this information with the National Headquarters of INEC, the State Security Service, the Inspector General of Police, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. He emphasized that his intention in revealing the PDP’s alleged tactics was to reassure the people of Enugu that APGA would do everything possible to guarantee their safety and protect their right to vote on March 11, ensuring that their votes count. “We will not take lightly any plans to subvert or abuse the democratic process,” he asserted.
In response, the Enugu PDP Campaign Council swiftly denied the allegations, describing Nweke’s accusations as a disingenuous attempt to create preemptive excuses for what they expect to be a poor performance in the upcoming election. In a statement issued by its Director of Communications and Spokesperson, Nana Ogbodo, the PDP asserted that Nweke’s impact on the March 11 polls would be limited to making unfounded conjectures, emphasizing that the race is clearly beyond his capabilities and that he has consistently been outmatched.
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