A candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded election, Mohammed Kumalia, has accused some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of tampering with election materials used in the February 25 parliamentary election.
Kumalia, who was a candidate in the Borno Central Senatorial District, alleged that some INEC officials and ad hoc staff connived with some police personnel to perpetrate the act.
During a press conference in Abuja yesterday, Kumalia said he had filed a petition at the Election Tribunal challenging the declaration of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the seat.
According to him, the tribunal had granted a request for his legal team to inspect election materials, including ballot papers used by INEC in the Borno Central election.
“While our team of lawyers were undertaking the inspection of materials on 22nd March 2023, they discovered some INEC ad hoc staff sorting out and rearranging and counting ballot papers and stuffing them in different ballot boxes in respect of Mafa, Kala Balge and Dikwa local governments.
“Our inspectors immediately raised the alarm and accordingly reported the incident to the Borno State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC). They drew the attention of the REC that the actions of the ad-hoc staff amounted to tampering with evidence.
“The REC assured our team that the ad hoc staff were only rearranging the documents that were dumped on them by the respective local government electoral officers who brought the materials from the local governments.
“Although we were not satisfied with the explanation, we gave them the benefit of the doubt and continued with the inspection.
“To our surprise, by the next day, Thursday 23rd March, 2023, our inspectors this time around, caught red handed two ad-hoc staff actually thumbprinting ballot papers and stuffing them into ballot boxes for Mafa Local Government right inside the premises of the INEC office in Maiduguri.
“Our inspectors immediately got the two INEC ad hoc staff arrested and took them to the Bulumkutu Police Station together with the bundles of ballot papers that were thumb printed and the indelible ink they used”, Kumalia said.
The PDP candidate however said his legal team went to the police station the next day to discover that the two INEC ad hoc staff and the bundles of ballot papers they thump-printed had been released to INEC officials in Borno.