INEC commissioner denies manipulating by-election for APC

Mr Festus Okoye, the National Electoral Commissioner for information and voter education at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) rigged the by-election for the Ogoja-Yala federal constituency in Cross River State that took place last weekend.

In a press conference held in Calabar a few days ago, the chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Venatius Ikem, accused Mr Okoye, who presided over the two by-elections held on February 26, 2022, of compromising his authority and rigging the process in favour of the APC.

“Nothing could be farther from the truth,” Okoye said on a private radio station in Calabar, Sparkling FM, during a radio interview.

He took the time to describe the procedures of the election in order to demonstrate that it would be very impossible to rig an election using the Biomodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) system that had been installed for the exercise.

He said that one of the issues the INEC faced during the 2022 by-elections was the supply of agents by other political parties as well as the availability of cars to transport electoral materials to the different polling units throughout the country.

He added that the worry and resentment that erupted as a result of the by-elections stemmed from those who attempted to rig the process but were unsuccessful.

The INEC National Electoral Commissioner for information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye has denied rigging the last weekend by-election for the Ogoja-Yala federal constituency in favour of the ruling APC in Cross River State.

Few days ago, the chairman of opposition PDP in the State, Venatius Ikem addressed a news conference in Calabar, accusing Mr Okoye who supervised the two by-elections of 26 February, 2022, of compromising his office and rigging the exercise for the APC.

Speaking over a private radio station in Calabar, Sparkling FM, Okoye said, “Nothing can be farther from the truth.”

He took time to explain the processes of the election to show that it could be very difficult to rig election with the Biomodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine deployed for the exercise.

He said part of challenges the INEC experienced during the 2022 by-elections were provisions of agents by other political parties and vehicles to accompany the electoral materials to the various polling units.

He explained that the anxiety and anger that arose from the by-elections were from persons who wanted to rig the process but could not.

“The challenge we had was that some of the political parties did not make provision for vehicles to accompany the voting materials to the polling units (PU). So, at each stage, the two major political parties had their representatives at the PU.

“These anxiety and anger arose because those who used to hawk voting materials like permanent voters’ cards did not have opportunity to corrupt the system this time around because of BVAS.

“BVAS was able to read the face and fingerprints of accredited voters. In the event that the machine could not do so, it means that the person would have been involved in identity theft, meaning that he was not registered at that PU, and the voter card he was holding was not his.

“That’s why you saw the level of contest and consistency in the numbers of votes scored by each party. Compare this with what used to occur when we used Incident Form. So, it tells you that those that vote at each PU were those registered there,” he stated.

Okoye went on to say that before the votes could be tallied, they had to interrogate the BVAS, which provided them with the number of registered and authorized voters at the specific polling unit in question.

This, he said, was done to guarantee that the number of votes cast corresponded to the number of registered voters.