The Independent National Electoral Commission should investigate the alleged forgery of its monitoring report of the Labour Party primary election in Enugu West Senatorial District held on June 8, 2022, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Hon. Chukwuemeka Aneke, said.
According to him, there were discrepancies in a Certified True Copy obtained from INEC and documents INEC submitted to the court in defence of the LP senatorial primary election cases.
Aneke in a petition by his lawyers, Bonaventure Madu and Tobechukwu Enem, dated November 10 and addressed to INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, demanded the commission should investigate the alleged forgery with a view to punishing the perpetrators.
He said upon their request, INEC had, on July 22, issued them a copy of its Monitoring Report for the Enugu West Senatorial District primary held on June 8, 2022.
The petitioner said during court proceedings on November 7, in the suit No. FHC/AB3/CS/1194/2022, at a Federal High Court in Abuja, “INEC attached and exhibited a totally different and doctored report, dated September 9, and certified by one Ahmed Goni.”
In view of the above discrepancies between the two INEC reports, Aneke therefore demanded that INEC immediately withdrew the forged document from court within one week and prosecute officials of the commission involved in the criminal act.
He warned that if INEC failed to withdraw the forged monitoring report and commence the prosecution of the officials involved, he would have no option than to press a criminal charge against the said officials and the commission and follow it up with a civil suit.
The letter read in part, “Curiously, during the court proceedings on November 7, 2022, in the said suit No. FHC/AB3/CS/1194/2022 at the Federal High Court, Abuja, your commission attached and exhibited a totally different and doctored INEC report of the Labour Party senatorial districts of Enugu State, dated September 9, 2022, and certified by one Ahmed Goni, and was tendered by Alhaji Abdulaziz Sani.”
According to the letter, while the forged report bears only one sub-item, which is the summary of the Enugu East Senatorial District Primary, the genuine INEC Monitoring Report bears the report of the three senatorial district primaries of Enugu State.
“The forged INEC report did not bear the INEC field teams’ report made by the monitoring team lead, Ezeabasill Kene, the Electoral officer of Ezeagu Local Government to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Enugu State, indicating what actually happened at the venue of the primary election, which report is attached to Annexure 2 and is our genuine INEC Monitoring Report”, the petitioners said.
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