22nd October, 2023
By Emmanuel Oloniruha
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cautioned political parties against spreading fake news, ahead of the Nov.11 Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo governorship elections.
Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman stated this in a statement in Abuja.
Oyekanmi was reacting to a statement by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that INEC was configuring Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines at the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the state governorship election.
“The attention of INEC has been drawn to a statement signed by ID Ijele, the Director of New Media of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of the governorship campaign team.
“The statement alleged that three staff of INEC are right now maliciously reconfiguring the BVAS machines in the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the Nov.11 governorship election in a part of the state in favour of a candidate.
“The story is untrue. The three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and are not even in Kogi at the moment.
“Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in our Ondo State office in Akure.
“Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a very close family member hospitalised in Abuja, Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff of the commission,” Oyekanmi said.
He said that the configuration of BVAS was done simultaneously and exclusively in INEC offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi by teams deployed from the national headquarters, Abuja.
“The public is advised to disregard the story as fake news.
“At the same time, the commission appeals to political parties to desist from engaging in malicious rumour-mongering of this nature, “ Oyekanmi said.