David Umahi, the immediate past governor of Ebonyi State and the Senator representing Ebonyi South Zone, is accused of fabricating the BVAS report of the Independent National Electoral Commission. More than 30 civil society organisations and human rights groups have asked for Umahi’s arrest and prosecution for the alleged forgery. Umahi was just elected to his current position.
As they emerged from their news conference on Friday in Abuja, civil society organisations (CSOs) bemoaned the occurrence as a sign of danger to the nation’s democracy and the rule of law. They called on competent institutions to investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Recall that Hon. Linus Okorie, a two-term House of Representatives member who represented the Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency and Senatorial Candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 National Elections, had approached the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in an effort to be declared the rightful winner having scored the highest number of valid votes. Okorie was seeking to be declared the rightful winner having scored the highest number of valid votes.
In addition to this, he asserts that Umahi was not nominated for this position through a legitimate primary of any political party in Nigeria that is now in existence.
It has come to our attention that there are claims of contradicting Certified True Copies of electoral papers, most notably BVAS reports, provided by INEC to competing parties in the same cases before tribunals all over the country.
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According to them, “Case in point is the Ebonyi State National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal,” which is a place where the immediate past governor of Ebonyi State and Senator for the Ebonyi South Senatorial District, Engr David Nweze Umahi, has been accused of presenting a forged CTC of the BVAS Accreditation Report and Compliance Certificate to the Tribunal in defence of cases challenging his election.
“Umahi was accused of obtaining the aforementioned BVAS Report and Certificate of Compliance from the ICT Department of the INEC Headquarters in a petition against him and other identified persons that was submitted to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) by his Labour Party opponent, Linus Okorie. On the other hand, in a letter that was submitted to the petition, the Secretary to the Commission stated that the CTC Report and the Compliance Certificate were NOT AUTHENTIC, which means that they did not originate from the Commission.
“There is cause for fear that a cartel may be functioning within the INEC Headquarters and conspiring with desperate politicians to churn out fraudulent or falsified documents of the Commission, as in this instance, with the intention of perverting justice at the ongoing election tribunals around the country.
“The import of such a criminal conspiracy is grave, both on the integrity of the ultimate judicial judgements and on the broader development of a credible election process in the country,” the report states. We demand that an urgent and thorough inquiry be conducted into the petition that was cited by the police in order to unearth the identities of any cartel in INEC that is involved in the unlawful manipulation of official papers and to ensure that anyone who is charged is brought to justice.
“All of these have damaged the hope and confidence of Nigerians in the commitment, independence, and competence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free, fair, and credible elections,” said the INEC commissioner. This is a significant barrier that stands in the way of the expansion of our democracy.
After learning that his primary adversary, Engr Umahi, was presenting the CTC of the BVAS report on the election in front of the tribunal, Okorie had written to INEC to request confirmation of the information. In response, the electoral umpire certified that he was in possession of the original CTC, but Umahi’s was not authentic.
In the previous letter from INEC, the following had been written: “Your letter dated May 18, 2023, on the aforementioned subject matter references.
“The Commission wishes to confirm that the BVAS Report attached to your letter as Annexure “A” is legitimate,”LP Senatorial Candidate’s letter to INEC was dated May 18, 2023 and signed by Alex Akoja, Esq, his Solicitors’ Lead Counsel. The letter had read in part, “Our Client is embarrassed that two diametrically different Certified True Copies (CTC) of the same document are coming from your Commission, although signed by two different persons at different times.” The copy that was provided to the customer came first in terms of timing and was labelled as Annexure “A.”
“It is on the basis of this assumption that our Client has asked us to contact you to urge you to use your good offices to cause an investigation into this circumstance and to confirm to us which of the two Certified True Copies is legitimate,” the letter begins. “Our Client has also instructed us to confirm to you which of the two Certified True Copies is authentic.”
Our attempts to get a statement from the former governor on the current predicament were unsuccessful. As of the time this report was written on Friday night, he had not answered any of his calls or responded to any of the inquiries that were made on his mobile device.
