Chairmen of political parties in Nigeria, political leaders, and heads of political associations (registered and deregistered), Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) and civil society have raised an alarm about an alleged plot to stop the electronic transmission of results, deactivate the BIVAS from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) server, and force out INEC top officials, including the chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu.
The coalition made this known at a world press conference on Wednesday, alleging that the plot is being coordinated by the All Progressives Congress.
They said, “The Chairmen of Nigeria Political Parties, Opposition Coalition CUPP, and Heads of Political associations have intercepted intelligence of an alleged fresh plot against the 2023 election and this time being coordinated by leading figures of the ruling APC Party, APC Governors led by a South East APC Governor with controversial past and another from the North West who are working with their colleagues to perfect a plot to intimidate INEC leadership into abandoning the use of electronic transmission and uploading of election results to the INEC server, deactivation of the BIVAS machine from INEC server and the creation of crisis of confidence based on trumped up charges that will lead to the removal of top officials of the Commission including the INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood and other National Commissioners who are insisting on the use of the BIVAS for the 2023 election and the irreversible use of electronic transmission of the result.
“This latest intelligence and shocking information involve the use of security agencies, the APC-controlled Senate, and the court to cause a leadership crisis and change that will see to the removal of the Commission’s top leadership led by Prof Mahmud Yakubu and the appointment of a pushover and compromised acting Chairman who will ruin the credibility of the 2023 election by deactivating the BVAS machine from INEC server, stop the use of electronic transmission of result and also ensure that the Commission’sCommission’s Resident Electoral Commissioners nominated by APC Governors are quickly approved and deployed to States where they will be of assistance to the ruling party at the expense of credible, free and fair elections.
“We, the Chairmen and leaders of different political parties here (AA, LABOUR, PDP, ADC, APP ETC), candidates of different parties, CSOS, and leaders of Opposition Coalition CUPP categorically state that any plan to destabilize INEC and force the top officials of the Commission including the INEC Chairman out of office, whether with trumped-up charges, manipulated security report, instigated or coordinated parliamentary investigation, a hurriedly obtained injunction from the court, a Code of Conduct Bureau inquiry or an arrest and hurried arraignment will not be accepted. We repeat, these will not be accepted by Nigerian political parties, party leaders, civil societies, and the generality of Nigerians.”
The coalition likened further actions in this direction to “playing with fire and a direct affront and challenge to Nigerian voters and the entire political parties,” adding that it will be resisted vehemently.
It also said it got the tip-off from sources inside APC and the camp of the governors in the alleged conspiracy.
It added, “Any attempt to reenact the Onnoghen formula by a few desperate APC Leaders and Governors who know that they, as well as their sponsored candidates, are now unelectable will not work. The plan to destroy the only ray of hope for our election represented by the electronic devices that will also transmit results electronically, especially BIVAS will be resisted.
“Knowing that the conspiracy against our electoral system started with the audacious compromise of the continuous voters’ registration exercise code-named Omuma magic, we applaud INEC for accepting there were issues and moving on to continue the cleaning up of the fake registrations which was of high magnitude and would have ruined the 2023 election.
“The nightmare caused by the shocking uncovering of the Omuma magic, which saw foreigners, male pictures with female gender, female gender with male pic, burial pictures, and children faces with age above that of late queen Elizabeth will continue to keep Nigerians in shock for years to come.
“We are not happy that those behind this audacious criminal operation have not been arrested, sacked, and prosecuted and have still been kept for likely more damage to our 2023 election.
“We, therefore, call for the investigation, arrest, and trial of those who are involved in the compromise of voters’ registration called Omuma Magic and for INEC to make its internal report public and redeploy the staff responsible as a way to rebuild confidence.”
The coalition added that it will submit petitions on the alleged new conspiracy to USA, UK, and other foreign embassies.
“We are also storming the USA, UK, and other foreign embassies where we are going to submit petitions and alert them of the alleged new conspiracy which threatens the Nigerian electoral process and electoral stability. We will urge them to keep vigilant eyes on the process as development partners and ensure there is adequate vigilance and support plus pressure to ensure the right things are done in compliance with extant laws,” they said.
