The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Tuesday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of trying to destroy and erase evidence of alleged rigging of last Saturday’s presidential election.
PDP accused INEC of trying to destroy evidence in a bid to prevent it from obtaining proof that the BVAS machines were reconfigured.
Debo Ologunagba, the spokesman of the former ruling party, said INEC’s action was to frustrate the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court.
Addressing a press conference, Ologunaba said: “We have called you to alert Nigerians and the International Community of the atrocious move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to destroy and erase evidence of its intolerable rigging of the February 25, 2023 Presidential election.
“Late yesterday at 10: 10 pm, INEC in a desperate move to prevent our Party and Candidate from obtaining necessary evidence as Ordered by the Court, filed a motion requesting that it be allowed to reconfigure the BVAS machines and wipe out relevant information that our Party and Candidate require to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“This reprehensible action by INEC to frustrate the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court is a clear recipe for crisis and a deliberate design by the Commission to derail our democracy and trigger anarchy in the country.
“Nigerians can recall how the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu superintended over the manipulation of the results of the Presidential election and hurriedly announced a winner in spite of widespread outcry and complain over numerous evidence of malpractices and violation of several provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 by INEC and its officials.
“The INEC Chairman bypassed all the steps and procedures provided by the Electoral Act, 2022 for the declaration of results, including announcing and declaring only results that were transmitted directly from the Polling Units to the INEC Server/Website and to review the results in the event of disputes and objections as to the correctness and consistency of the collated result.”