A group of youths from Rivers State under the aegis of Alliance in Defence of Democracy has staged a protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, calling for the resignation of the electoral body’s chairman over the alleged printing of fake electoral materials in Rivers State.
The protesting group say they are disappointed with the way the chairman of INEC has responded to the arrest of a printer who was allegedly caught printing fake electoral materials in Port Harcourt last week.
The spokesman for the group, Mr Agu Okwukwe, said that the police had arrested the suspect following a tip off.
“Officers of the Nigeria police on Saturday, November, 5 stormed 12 Isiokpo Street D-Line in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and arrested three persons including the manager of the printing press, Atonye Peterside, a prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a cousin to Mr Dakuku Peterside.
“We express our utter disappointment and shock at the complicity of the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and the INEC National Commissioner in Charge of Elections Amina Zakari in the entire saga.
“The questions begging for answer are, how did the printer get the serial number of the materials they are printing when the numbers are to be known only by INEC leadership? How did they get the polling units they were printing when INEC has not made public the units were elections will be held? How about the colour, format, font size and security features of all the materials? How did the printer get all those?” Mr Okwukwe questioned.
Meanwhile INEC’s Director for Voters Education, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, told the protesters that the protest was unnecessary, as the electoral body had been working with the police in their investigations.
“When we catch people in the act, allegedly forging currency notes, do you go to blame the Central Bank because people are forging their own things that they produce.
“When a person is caught with a forged WAEC certificate do you blame WAEC or the examination body because people have decided to go and forge this things? It is ridiculous. So, on what bases are people now blaming INEC? What is the evidence?
“We will still have to wait for the police to complete their investigation and we are collaborating and cooperating with the police in ensuring that we unravel the circumstances which lead to this,” he told the protesters.
