Social Democratic Party(SDP) Candidate for the Kogi State Governorship Elections, Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka has reiterated his absolute confidence in the resolve of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a transparently free and fair election on November 11,2023.
In a statement by Faruk Adejoh-Audu, his spokesman, Director Communications, for his campaign, Alhaji Ajaka passed the vote of confidence while addressing a meeting of Party Stakeholders in Abuja at the weekend.
He said himself and the party leadership had taken time to exhaustively examine the measures against electoral fraud introduced by the commission and are satisfied that the votes of the electorate will ultimately prevail.
Recall that ID Ijele, the Director of New Media of the SDP Governorship campaign team in Kogi had claimed in a statement that the team had gotten a report of some staff of INEC allegedly lodged in the Kogi State Government House since Wednesday, 18th October, 2023.
He claimed that the campaign team had received insider information that revealed that Mr. Ibrahim Egbunu, Nicholas Ocholi & Muhammed Adara, who are staff of the commission have been contracted by the Governor, and are heavily involved in “a covert operation aiming to reconfigure and personalize Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) devices.”
But INEC while reacting in a statement on social media platform X (formally known as twitter) described the claim as “fake news”
INEC said the three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and not even in Kogi State at the moment.
“Mr. 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,” INEC said.
The Commission explained that the configuration of BVAS is done simultaneously and exclusively in our offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States professionally and strictly handled by teams deployed from the national Headquarters in Abuja.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka told Journalists at the weekend that his campaign was rather concerned with the desperation of Governor Yahaya Bello abusing the authority of his sacred office to foist anarchy on the state through arming of thugs and procuring security agents to create an atmosphere of fear and terror before the elections.
Ajaka said that it’s unfortunate that the state governor had now abandoned his oath of office to protect the lives and properties of citizens to be compromising the official security personnel of State and turning them into political thugs.
He said he was still shocked that a thug pursued into the bush and arrested by his security operatives last Wednesday night after a failed ambush turned out to be a serving Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).
Ajaka recalled with dread how he ran into a blockade by the thugs who opened sporadic gun fire on his convoy that Wednesday night but were repelled by his gallant security details who chased the thugs into the bush even as their kingpin, one Friday Makama a fugitive declared wanted by the Federal High Court escaped.
” I was shocked when the one caught in the bush started begging and crying out that he’s a police officer detailed to follow the thugs by his superior.”
“We know the outgoing governor is desperate and will compromise all those who are willing to be corrupted but the INEC measures against fraud and manipulation are too full proof for anyone to undermine .
” All our supporters should disregard any alarm of crooks reconfiguring BVAS devices. It’s just not possible. We have total confidence in the ability of INEC to secure our votes. “