A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mike Igini, has recounted how politicians allegedly printed fraudulent election result sheets and transported them to Akwa Ibom State by chartered aircraft ahead of the 2019 governorship election.
Igini made the disclosure during an interview on Trust TV on Wednesday, explaining how he took emergency measures to prevent the alleged plot from compromising the outcome of the election.
He said the incident occurred about 48 hours before the 2019 governorship and House of Assembly elections, when he was serving as INEC’s resident electoral commissioner in the state.
According to him, intelligence information indicated that the politicians had produced fake result sheets containing pre-written figures for 26 of the state’s 31 local government areas and flown the documents into Uyo, the state capital.
Igini said he immediately proceeded to the Central Bank of Nigeria branch in Uyo, where INEC’s sensitive electoral materials were being kept, to secure the original result sheets against the alleged scheme.
He explained that he personally signed and endorsed the authentic result sheets for all 2,980 polling units in the state, a task that took him approximately five hours to complete.
“Political participants spent millions to print fake result sheets and flew them into Akwa Ibom in a chartered jet. As soon as I got wind of the plot, I went to the CBN Uyo to personally sign and endorse all the original result sheets. It took me five hours,” he said.
The former REC said his action rendered the alleged counterfeit documents unusable, adding that the endorsement of the original materials helped protect the electoral process from manipulation and ensured that the results declared could reflect the choices made by voters at the polling units.
