The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), yesterday alleged that it has received credible reports that there was a secret court action to stop the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), in the 2023 general elections.
The coalition that addressed a press conference in Abuja which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, claimed that it was in possession of evidence to that effect.
It, however through its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, did not reveal the plaintiff to the suit it claimed had been filed in a court in the South East region of the country.
Specifically, Ugochinyere pointed out that the vigilance team of CUPP discovered the suit at Owerri Federal High Court where it was filed since the 24th August, 2022.
Ugochinyere displayed extracts of the National Voters Register which it claimed were part of at least ten million fake registrations done by one of the political parties.
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‘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,’ he alleged.
He also showed several registrations which were captured from passport photographs and other photos.
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 added.
Ugochinyere further 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.’
According to him, ‘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.
To this end, the coalition,he said has “called on international partners, local and international observer groups, civil society and the general public to help it and protect democracy.”
CUPP said ‘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.’
Many Nigerians have taken to social media to react to the reports.