INEC staff arrested with card readers PDP agent – Akwa Ibom APC alleges

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Akwa Ibom state has alleged that the INEC card readers found in possession of the commission’s staff, Mr Ejike Nwankwo, who was arrested by the police were the same card readers used to rig election in favour of the People’s Democratic Party in the state.

 The party said the illegal possession of the commission’s card reader by an ITC staff of the commission months after the general elections has further exposed Mr Mike Igini’s compromised position in the just concluded general elections.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa Ibom state Police Command, SP. Odiko MacDon, last week confirmed the arrest of a staff of the state branch of INEC, Mr Ejike Nwankwo for being possession of four card readers belonging to the commission.

Speaking at the party secretariat, Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo, the APC state chairman, Hon Ini Okopido, alleged the card readers found with the INEC staff were some of card readers used during the last general elections.

“First, we wish to thank the police for their diligence and hard work in making this arrest which has undoubtedly brought to the fore dubious machinations of INEC under Mike Igini, the REC.

“We believe that the card readers found with Mr. Nwankwo were some of those pre-loaded card readers used in rigging the elections in favour of the PDP and Udom Emmanuel.”

But the INEC public affairs officer, Don Etukudoh,  had on Wednesday in a release stated  that the four ‘’empty card readers were used for training of Ad hoc staff by the officer during the elections’’.

He stated that ‘’the four card readers do not have data in them that could have influenced or effect the process or outcome of the elections’’.

According to him, the suspect was incapacitated just after the polls and could not return the card readers because of the illness but left them in his car, which was taken to the mechanic by his brother-in-law while he was in the hospital.

The APC said the explanation is laughable, ridiculous and full of lies. 

“INEC claims that Ejike Nwankwo used the card readers to train the ad hoc staffs before the election. INEC says that the said Mr Nwakwo fell ill after the elections.

“So what were the card readers doing with him throughout the elections till he fell ill? Why did he not call his colleagues in the IT department to meet him and retrieve these devices? And after he had recovered from the illness, what was he still doing with those card readers?

“The lies told by INEC are too glaring. We request Akwa Ibom people to discountenance these fabricated tissues of lies by INEC; and we request the police to get to the bottom of this stranger-than-fiction drama. Why are Akwa Ibom state government officials and PDP chieftains in the state piling pressure on the police to kill this matter?”

Okopido recalled that some weeks before the elections, the party had chronicled the various acts of Mike Igini’s bias against the party, and requested for his redeployment from Akwa Ibom state. 

He said the party leadership requested his removal on grounds that he has proved to be a compromised REC.

Lamenting that, “unfortunately, Igini was allowed to stay and conduct some of the most fraudulent elections ever known to mankind.”

The APC accused Mike Igini of working for the PDP in the state alleging further that, “All of the ad hoc staff recruited by INEC just before the last elections were either PDP members or their loyalists. 

Okopido expressed shock at  the speed with which PDP chieftains in the state and officials of Akwa Ibom state government rise to defend Mike Igini’s illegal actions.

“Isn’t it pretty curious that members of a political party that contested a disputed election have now turned themselves into INEC’s spokespersons? It simply means that PDP and INEC in Akwa Ibom are one and the same thing”, Okopido alleged.

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