Nigeria’s Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked a statement alleging that three of its staff are reconfiguring Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines at the government house of the northcentral state of Kogi State.
Kogi State’s capital, Lokoja is about 200 kilometres away from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
The statement, signed by ID Ijele, Director of New Media of the SDP Governorship campaign team in Kogi State, claimed that the staff were reconfiguring the machines in order to manipulate the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
The commission in a statement by the INEC Chairman’s Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi described the allegation as “fake news” and said that the three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of BVAS machines and are not even in Kogi State at the moment.
The commission said that Mr. Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in its Ondo State office in Akure, Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a sick family member in Abuja, and Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff member.
INEC said that the configuration of BVAS machines is done simultaneously and exclusively in its offices in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States by teams deployed from its national headquarters in Abuja.
The commission has appealed to political parties to desist from engaging in “malicious rumour mongering” and has urged the public to disregard the fake news.tunesharemore_vert
