Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, said it has uncovered a secret suit filed to stop the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, in the 2023 general election.
The coalition also claimed to have uncovered massive fake registrations on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) register using foreign names at the just-concluded Continuous Voter Registration CVR, exercise.
It further claimed to have uncovered plots to sack the Chairman of INEC Professor Mahmood Yakubu if he failed to suspend the use of BIVAS.
CUPP Spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, said he was in possession of valid evidence to substantiate the claims.
According to Ugochinyere, the said suit was instituted in one of the South-East states although he refused to divulge the plaintiff to the suit.
He said CUPP intelligence unit discovered the suit at Owerri Federal High Court where it was filed since August 24, 2022.
The CUPP Spokesman also claimed that 10 million fake registrations by one of the major political parties were uncovered by the coalition.
He displayed extracts of the National Voters Register which he claimed were part of the 10 million fake registrations.
According to him, “The names were sourced from both within and outside Nigeria including some African countries such as Ghana, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Togo, Guinea, Gambia and countries outside Africa including Jamaica, Brazil and New Zealand.”
Ugochinyere also showed several registrations which were captured from passport photographs and other photos.
Continuing he said: “Significant among the discoveries in the register is the fact that majority of the foreign names were all born in 1983 despite whether their photographs showed they were old or young.”
“Many people were also shown to have been born between 1900 and 1914 yet their photographs were those of young people.
“Equally, many male photos had their gender written as female and vice versa.”
He alleged that the “Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, is under pressure to announce a change to the Commission’s hard stands on the compulsory use of the BVAS machine for accreditation or get sacked as Chairman of the Commission.”
He further said that, “CUPP intercepted intelligence which has led to the discovery of the suit filed seeking to nullify the BVAS and exposure of the massive compromise in the voters register.
“The third leg of the plot is to sack the National Chairman through a suspension as the plotters know they cannot get the required numbers from the National Assembly for an outright sack,” he added.
CUPP, therefore, called on international partners, local and international observer groups, the society and the general public to help it and protect democracy.
“The success of any of these plots will erode the integrity and credibility of the electoral process and deny Nigerians the sovereign right to freely choose their leaders,” he said.
