The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kebbi State has assured of free, fair, credible, and acceptable elections on Saturday.
The commission renewed its commitment against allegations by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that there was a plan to rig the gubernatorial and state assembly elections in the state.
Reacting to the development in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday, the Deputy Director, of Voter Education and Publicity, INEC, Kebbi State, Alhaji Muhammadu Rabi’u, said the allegations were mere speculations.
The PDP had alleged a plan to delay the BVAS accreditation process as well as add unaccredited voters to cause outright cancellation of some polling units.
Rabi’u said: “There is nothing like that, anybody who comes on election day has to present his/her PVC before accredited and authenticated then be allowed to vote, so, there is no way you can delay accreditation.
“And anywhere we have problem with our BVAS, we have backup BVAS to replace the non-functional ones.”
On adding unaccredited voters to cause outright cancellation of elections, Rabi’u said “there is no way anybody who doesn’t register in a polling unit can come there and want to vote because nobody votes without PVC”.
Rabi’u assured that any of the ad-hoc staff that compromised his/her official position in favor of any political party would certainly be arrested and prosecuted according to the laws of the land, hence the need for them to remain neutral, honest, and transparent throughout the election process.
He appealed to the electorate to be calm and come out en masse to exercise their civic responsibility, assuring that INEC had already put all the necessary machinery in place for conducting free, fair, and credible elections across the state.
Addressing newsmen earlier, Abubakar Shehu, the Director-General of, the PDP Gubernatorial Campaign Council, said: “The Kebbi State Gubernatorial Campaign Council has discovered a hatched plan by some undemocratic element to rig the forthcoming Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections on Saturday, March 18.
“We have received reliable information that they intend to hijack the process by prevailing on election officials to; cause a delay in the BVAS accreditation process, add unaccredited voters to cause outright cancellation of such polling units, and disruption of units perceived to be our strongholds, among others.”
According to him, the sinister move is planned to take place in 16 local government areas, adding that they had perfected plans in collaboration with unscrupulous elections officials.
He, therefore, called on the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), the Nigeria Police, the Department of Security Service (DSS), and all other stakeholders to investigate it to arrest the culprits and take appropriate action towards ensuring hitch-free conduct of the elections.
Shehu assured that PDP as a party would remain committed to ensuring the overall success of the elections as well as the security of the election process.
