Romanus Ugwu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is replacing all servers in its headquarters and offices, in the 36 states of the Federation, and Abuja, so as to conceal the actual presidential election results transmitted from polling centres across the country.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, said replacement of the servers exposes the alleged culpability of the electoral body “in the manipulation and rigging of the 2019 presidential election.”
The party also said that the Presidency and INEC leadership have become jittery and, as a last resort, is tampering with the servers.
“Our party also has details of how INEC leadership and presidency agents procured and detailed computer experts to the Commission’s offices, to switch the servers, mutilate vital information in the system and attempt to erase all trails of transmitted results to the main server.
“Moreover, our party has been informed about how INEC leadership, several weeks after the election, used some compromised officials to manipulate voter registers in some states, by ticking names of individuals who did not participate in the presidential election, as having voted.
“This is with the view to using such to cover the fictitious results it wrote for the APC. What INEC and the Buhari Presidency do not understand is that computer software and applications leave traces, signatures as well as footmark. Forensic investigation of the system will reveal the real votes transmitted from the polling centers, which show Atiku Abubakar as the winner of the election,” the PDP stated.
In its reaction, INEC challenged PDP to provide evidence to support its claim.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information, Festus Okoye, said as a credible institution, INEC will not compromise its integrity.
“Why not ask the PDP to provide evidence rather than bothering the commission with a matter before a competent court of law.
“We want PDP to produce evidence that the Commission is shutting down and doctoring the server.
“This Commission is a responsible agency and, whatever we want to say, has already been presented before the presidential election petition tribunal.
“We are not going to engage in any media war with any political party; over an issue before a court of law.
“If any party believes that something untoward is going on, that party has the right to present such matter before the tribunal.
“We don’t have to respond to every allegation and I want to reiterate that the Commission is a public trust that cannot and will not do anything that will compromise our constitutional and legal rules,” Okoye said.