The Akwa Ibom State chapter of the All Progressives Congress on Tuesday petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission over the outcome of the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
The petitioners alleged that the results churned out from the state and read to Nigerians were fake, fabricated and manufactured to arrive at certain conclusions to favour the ruling party.
They noted that evidence to prove that this was the case was contained in the summary of results for the 2015 Presidential Election (Code:AK); and Summary of Results for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District Election(Code: SD/008/AK).
National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the party, Hilliad Eta, who in company of the Director-General of the Umana Umana Campaign Organisation, addressed newsmen in Abuja, said the petition was the party’s peaceful way of registering its displeasure.
Eta said, “If our peaceful protest is not given the attention it deserves by removing the Resident Electoral Commissioner, then they are asking us to protect ourselves and resort to self help.”
A copy of the petition made available to reporters pointed at “discrepancies recorded by INEC” in documents which are already in public domain.
The document partly read: “A closer look at these documents which were released by the REC for Akwa Ibom State shows clearly that there are disparities between the number of voters accredited for the Presidential election and the number accredited for the Senatorial district election as if accreditation was done twice.
“For example in Abak LGA, the number of accredited voters for the Presidential election is put at 64,980 while that for the Senate is put at 64,334.
“In Essein Udim LGA, the number accredited for the Presidential election is 91,925 as against 90,053 recorded as accredited voters for the Senatorial election.”
The petitioners also noted that there was only one plausible reason why this could happen and that is “the figures were cooked and randomly allocated.”
They also stressed that these disparities are reflected in almost every local government area of the state. They accused ad-hoc staff of INEC of taking part in unwholesome practices.
The petitioners prayed the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to remove the state Resident Electoral Commission and ensure that Ad-hoc staff originally trained for the elections are returned to their duty posts.
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