KWANKWASO ALLEGES PLOT BY ANPP TO TAMPER WITH GUBER BALLOT PAPERS

By NBF News

The office of the Kano State governor-elect, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has accused the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state of plans to tamper with the ballot papers used in the April 26 gubernatorial elections in the state. A statement made available to the Daily Sun, on Wednesday, and signed by the spokesman of the office, Malam Jaafar Jaafar, further alleged that the ANPP in the state had flown in, American forensic experts to undertake the task.

The statement, which drew the attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the alleged plot, further claimed that the ANPP had secretly sought an order from a Court, which granted them access to the ballots at the state INEC headquarters. The statement further alleged that both the court order and the forensic analysis were carried out secretly without the knowledge of journalists, representatives of political parties that contested the election and other stakeholders. 'If there is no ulterior motive behind the analysis, these individuals should have been invited to monitor the examination,' the statement alleged.

The statement also claimed that the foreigners might have programmed the machine to tamper with the thumb-prints on ballot papers in favour of the PDP so that they could tender the doctored results of the analysis before the Election Petition Tribunal.

'We are not apprehensive of forensic analysis because we are very much sure that the votes cast in our favour during the election were genuine. While we are confident that our votes are genuine, the clandestine nature of getting the court order and the analysis give us cause for alarm,' said the statement. The office of the governor-elect, therefore, rejected the alleged results of the analysis and called on INEC to devise ways of restoring the confidence in all the parties involved.

However, INEC Administrative Secretary in the state, Alhaji Ismail Moyi Kaura said the allegations were false and untrue.

Speaking with newsmen in his office on the allegations, the Administrative Secretary stated that up till that moment, INEC had not received such court order directing it to grant access to anybody to tamper with the ballot papers in their custody.