PLATEAU: ABUBAKAR USAINI’S RETURN OF BIVAS AFTER 3 DAYS IS ANOTHER FAILED ATTEMPT TO RIG GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION—PUNDITS

By: Valentine Adese (JP) and Alfred Saiki,

People in Plateau State woke up on Tuesday the 21/03/2023 to be told that, the 14 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) for Governorship election allegedly missing have been returned and the suspect arrested.

The suspect, one Abubakar Usaini, claimed the BIVAS have been with him for three days on the grounds that he was providing security for the items as a RAC Officer of INEC.

ABUBAKAR

Abubakar, who spoke to Journalists yesterday said, his action was owing to the situation he saw at the Collation Center and that his responsibility was to protect the BIVAS and other items.

He claimed he took the items away from the collation venue in his car, while accepting that he failed to involve the security and other necessary people in INEC while taking his action.

Pundits in Plateau have called this another failed attempt to manipulate the outcome of the Governorship election.

Steve Aluko Daniel, a Director in Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) while joining his voice to call for the prosecution of Abubakar said, the prosecution of Abubakar Usani would deter others who have same intention in the future.

Sam Oti, a renowned Human Rights Activist, while speaking to REALITY said, the attempt to cause confusion through Abubakar at the Governorship poll, using Naraguta “B” Ward by conflict merchants is a disgrace and that INEC should remain and maintain its decision of not including the results from the BIVAS.

Adding that, “Since, the results in the 14 BIVAS were not uploaded it should remain so, while the suspect and any of his accomplice(s) or co-conspirators should be prosecuted”.

You would recall that, REALITY had reported that, voters had foiled attempts to manipulate election results for Naraguta “B” Ward in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State during the collation exercise of the Plateau State Governorship poll’s results.

REALITY reported that, voters had thwarted attempts by some desperate politicians and unscrupulous INEC presiding officers to manipulate results of some poling units of the Ward

It was learnt that after voting had ended and results announced at the various  polling units, some top politicians working for a particular political party  stormed the Ward Collation Centre at the Government College Jos and went away with 14 BIVAS, election  materials and some Presiding officers in their bid to allegedly manipulate the results already announced.

REALITY had also reported that, the alleged desperate politicians and their accomplices were later traced to a hotel where they were said to be changing the results of  about 14 polling units in their favour .

A voter in Naraguta “B” Ward, Kabiru Audu, who witnessed the incident, confirmed the development to Jay FM in Jos as monitored by this paper.