From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Niger Delta Democratic Watch (NDDW) has raised an alarm over the alleged plot by Information Technology (IT) experts to compromise already declared election results ahead of the sittings of the Bayelsa Governorship Elections Petitions Tribunal.
The group alleged that the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress( APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, is behind the recruitment of the IT experts.
According to the group, Sylva and his recruited experts are working to give credence and backing to the “cooked figures” allocated to the APC in some polling units where INEC either rejected or cancelled the compromised votes for various reasons including bypass of BVAS, massive thumb-printing and outright manipulation of the electoral process.
NDDW in a statement by Comrade Joseph Dennis, stated that preliminary investigation showed that the suspected IT experts have been assembled somewhere in Lagos State to fraudulently re-configure the voters accreditation on the BVAS to align with the polling units results uploaded on the INEC portal.
The group further revealed that Sylva and his agents are working to manipulate the election figures in favour of APC and presents their concocted figures before the Tribunal, where he has gone to argue that he won the election and so, he be declared the winner.
“INEC clearly did not accept polling units results not backed by BVAS in line with extant electoral laws particularly the amended 2022 Electoral Act. Sylva’s latest move to manipulate BVAS is laughable.
“Some of the polling units where results were not accepted or cancelled by INEC due to identified electoral malpractices, however, found their way to the IReV portal in controversial circumstances and under duress. Regrettably, some of the Presiding Officers were held at gun points to upload some of the manipulated units results.”
“It is an established fact that, as election observers, the INEC did a thorough job to give Bayelsans a credible election and that they have since reviewed the conduct of the election. We have it on good authority that INEC stands firmly on the declaration of Senator Douye Diri, as the re-elected Governor of Bayelsa State.
“It is INEC that conducts election and the supervisory INEC National Commissioner ensured that only valid votes were counted in the November 11 Gubernatorial Election in Bayelsa State.
“The INEC was also bold to have cancelled some votes across polling units affecting different political parties. There are a lot of places where some persons bypassed the BVAS only to generate their own figures which were disowned by our officers. INEC outrightly rejected such votes. Proper accreditation through BVAS remains the soul of the election. We must appreciate INEC for the introduction of BVAS for accreditation. This is novel,” the group stated.