The APC 2023 Senatorial Candidate for Benue South, Comrade Daniel Onjeh, has petitioned the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yaqubu, over what he termed concealment of sensitive electoral materials used for the conduct of the 25th February, 2023 Senatorial Election in Benue South by some staff of INEC.
In a 3-Page Petition to the INEC Chairman dated 22nd May, 2023 which leaked to the Press, Com. Onjeh, stated that the Hon. Justice Ory Zik-Ikeorha-led National/State Legislative House Election Tribunal Holding in Makurdi, Benue State, had in its ruling on his Ex Parte Motion challenging the outcome of the election, granted an order permitting him, his lawyers and agents to conduct physical inspection and take photocopies of all the sensitive electoral materials used by INEC for the conduct of the election.
Com. Onjeh, who was APC’s Candidate in the 2015 re-run election against former President of the Senate, David Mark, further wrote that when his team got to the INEC Local Government Offices at Oju, Obi, Otukpo, Agatu, Apa, Okpokwu, Ado and Ohimini Local Government Areas of Benue South, they were taken aback to realize that for majority of the Polling Units which they were challenging the results in court, the ballot papers were not provided to them for inspection because they were not available.
The former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the West Africa Students’ Union (WASU) added that they were shocked to observe that the ballot papers for the conduct of the election across the local governments they had visited for inspection thus far, were either not available or all muddled up; and because there were no Polling Unit Code Numbers on the ballot papers, they could not establish which ballot paper was used in any particular Polling Unit.
“The findings from our inspection of the ballot papers are expected to avail us of sufficient evidence to present in court in defense of our claims of votes suppression and reallocation, unauthorized mutilations of election result sheets, non accreditation of Voters, amongst others; following which we may pray the Tribunal to order a recount of the ballot papers, or the Tribunal may suo motu order a recount of the ballot papers in the court, when the trial of the case commences formally on 3rd June, 2023,” noted Onjeh.
Onjeh was therefore of the view that all those who were involved in the conspiracy to rig him out at the last Benue South Senatorial Poll were trying desperately to cover up their sordid tracks; otherwise, since they claimed that his opponent in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Patrick Abba Moro, had won the election, he saw no reason why they were jittery to produce the original ballot papers used for the conduct of the election to be recounted in the open court.
” All I and my co-Applicants in the case are asking is for INEC to bring the ballot papers used for my election to the glare of the public, so that the whole world may see and verify what actually transpired during the February 25th, 2023 Senatorial Election in Benue South. The court had earlier established that it could order for the ballot papers to be brought to the open court to be recounted if the need arises, during the trial of the case,” stated Onjeh.
Onjeh further alleged that since the Tribunal had slated 3rd June, 2023 for sitting to commence the trial proper on his Petition, which gives him barely eight days to close his case, it was clear from all that was playing out that INEC was working in cahoots with his opponents in the election to sabotage his case, because he needed to promptly conclude the inspection of the electoral materials in order to write his report and submit to the Tribunal, to pave way for the recounting of the ballot papers in court.
“It is evident that the conducts of some Electoral Officers in Benue South are incongruent with the strident efforts and commitment of the INEC National Leadership towards sanitizing the nation’s electoral process by conducting credible and transparent polls across the country,” noted Onjeh.
Com. Onjeh, who was the immediate past Chairman of the Governing Board of Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, therefore humbly requested that the INEC Chairman should direct the relevant INEC Officials at the various Local Government Offices in Benue South to promptly reorganize all the ballot papers and other sensitive materials used for the conduct of the 25th February, 2023 Senatorial Election, and to allow him and his team to have unfettered access to inspect them in line with the Order of the Tribunal.
“Permit me to further state that the inspection of the sensitive electoral materials by me and my team must entail flipping through the various electoral materials, including ballot papers, to check for incidences of irregularities. It is not enough for INEC to enable us to only stare at the materials from a distance. We must be allowed to get close enough in order to establish the evidences that we are seeking to present to the court,” added Onjeh in the petition.