The presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ariku Abubarkar, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to destroy evidence contained in the Certified True Copies (CTC) of form EC8A.
Atiku, who spoke through the PDP Presidential Campaign Council spokesman, Mr Charles Aniagwu raised the alarm on the eve of Friday March 24th 2023, at a press conference in Asaba, the Delta State capital.
Aniagwu who doubles as the Commissioner for Information in the State, said INEC should do what is right by allowing the States which are the original source of the documents to issue same without comparing with the IREV data.
He alleged that INEC headquarters has directed the Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) in states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to ensure comparison with IREV data before issuance of CTC of form EC8A.
The PDP Presidential Campaign Council image maker, opined that his party was interested in the CTC of the form EC8A to enable it prove its case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
He warned that INEC’s directive to State RECs to compare with IREV figures was injurious to Nigerians who are already suffered enough in the hands of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the center.
Hear him: “The Presidential election has come and gone but because our party isn’t satisfied with the conduct of the election, we felt that there is need to challenge the outcome in the court of law.
“We were able to get a court judgement asking INEC to avail us all relevant documents that will assist us in proving our case.
“We are however taken aback that INEC in an unsigned document sent to State Resident Electoral Commissioners directed them not to issue the form EC8A without comparing with IREV records at the Commission’s headquarters.
“This directive is a departure from the usual procedure for the issuance of Certified True Copies of form EC8A which has to do with results from the states.
“The most important data here is the primary data which are domiciled with the Resident Electoral Commissioners of states and INEC knows that the directive is not the right procedure hence they refused to sign the document,” Aniagwu stated.
He said the delays in uploading and manipulation of the results on the IREV portal were already being interrogated by the party and hence would not rely on data from the IREV portal.
“We want to plead with the leadership of INEC in the interest of country, justice and Nigerians who filed out to vote to do the right thing by allowing the RECs to issue the CTC of EC8A without having to compare with what they have on the IREV.
“The IREV data in this instance is a secondary data because the primary data which is the form EC8A is domiciled with the Resident Electoral Commissioners.
“We cannot at this moment believe that what was uploaded in the IREV data will be what actually transpired because of the delay in the upload of the data.
“In the actual fact it is INEC headquarters that is supposed to confirm from the states and not the other way round because the primary source of the form EC8A is the States”.
