Akpabio Vs Ekpenyong: Card Reader Accreditation Unreliable – Another INEC Official Confesses … Says APC Manipulates Results To Favour PDP

By UbongAbasi Ise

The battle at the tribunal between Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Chris Ekpenyong over the seat of Akwa Ibom Northwest ( Ikot Ekpene) has seen the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, divided against itself as another staff of the commission admits that smart card reader’s report could be unreliable in accreditation of voters.

Testifying on Wednesday before the national assembly tribunal sitting in Uyo, Mrs. Geraldine Okpashi, an electoral official who supervised February 23 elections in Okon Ward in Essien Udim local government area,

According to her,

Mrs. Okpashi said INEC cancelled election results of 17 out of 20 polling units in Okon Ward because armed thugs suspected to be hired by the All Progressives Congress, APC, invaded those polling units, carted away smart card readers and other election materials and manipulated the results.

When S.I. Ameh, counsel to Senator Godswill Akpabio asked the subpoenaed witness if the process of accreditation with card reader involves scanning of the permanent voter’s card, PVC, for verification of the eligibility of the voter as well as authentication by way of thumb-printing, she confessed that accreditation could be done even without the thumbprint maintaining that presiding officers at Okon ward were conducting accreditation with PVCs given to them by armed thugs without the owners available.

While Geraldine Okpashi  insisted that the APC were behind the abduction of electoral officials and hijacking of materials that led to the cancellation in 17 polling units, the petitioner’s counsel showed her  INEC Form EC 8As (the polling unit results) that indicated that the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, won in 15 polling units and then asked the witness if APC in Okon Ward were hijacking the election materials and be forcing the INEC officials to be writing results in favour of their rival, the PDP, an interrogation that stunned the witness.

Ms Elizabeth Usen, an election official who supervised presidential and national assembly elections in Afaha Ward in Essien Udim local government area, who also appeared as a subpoenaed witness before the tribunal, had earlier claimed to have observed how extra permanent voter cards, PVC, were swiped through smart card readers to generate 316 as a number of accredited voters for polling unit 11, and 239 for polling unit 13 of Afaha Ward.

As it would be recalled however, accredited voters that were not captured by smart card reader in Essien Udim local government area were reportedly excluded in the imputation of results at INEC headquarters in Uyo by Mr. Mike Igini, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom State.

In a related event, Mr. Edidiong Ofonime Udoh, a witness who presented himself as forensic expert, told the tribunal the video Exhibit (P551) tendered and played for the tribunal by Senator Akpabio's media aide, Anietie Ekong, was doctored, maintaining that the only hand without a face shown in the video for accreditation is that of a woman. He identified cortex on the fingers and the photo on the PVC handled by the INEC Staff with a card reader as belonging to a woman.

But Mr. Udoh did not attach a certificate to his statement to show proof that he was a qualified forensic expert.

S.I. Ameh notified the panel that Udoh’s video analysis was done after the tribunal commenced proceedings and particularly after Mr. Anietie Ekong  screened the video before the tribunal.

©The Sensor Newspaper

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