Godwin Otang
The Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Cross River has raised the alarm over alleged plans by Governor Ben Ayade and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Professor Gabriel Yomere, and other INEC officers to reconfigure BVAS machines used for the Governorship and state house elections on March-18, 2023.
Sources further reveal that “they had a meeting on Saturday night trying to come with modalities on how they can look at each Local Government, most especially the Local Governments where they have overvoting.”
The PDP Publicity Secretary, Mike Ojisi, commented on their concerns and called for genuine efforts to protect the election materials from deliberate manipulation.
“After series of meetings, arrangements have been concluded between the REC, the electoral officers (EOs) of each LG, and the Returning Officers to bring out all the BVAS within each polling units across the state that have overvoting in the just concluded Elections.
“With the BVAS they would be able to enable to thumbprint additional ballots papers to balance the votes and the number of person’s that did accreditation in each polling unit across the state.
The Governor has concluded the arrangements for this and it will commence today. We call on stakeholders and relevant agencies to demand for the original results sheets used in announcing the results from REC before they temper with it,” Ojisi explained.
However, when contacted, the REC, Gabriel Yomere, explained to Nigerian Tribune thus: “That is not true, Our office is secured 24 hours by the Police and Army. The BVAS are in safekeeping. Only the Lawyers are allowed to come and see and go.
“My last meeting with the state Governor was when I paid a courtesy visit with my management team around 22nd of December, 2022, before I left for Christmas, since then I have not seen the Governor. There is nothing to hide, I am happy that I conducted a free and fair election.”
