The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has raised the alarm alleging that its intelligence unit uncovered some political thugs allegedly recruited from Akwa Ibom State by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) who are printing and thumbprinting fake ballot papers in the Okigwe Local Government Area of the state.
The IPOB, made the allegation in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, on Saturday morning amid the ongoing governorship election in the state, and also alleged that some INEC officials in the state are part of the printing and thumbprinting of the fake ballot papers.
According to Powerful, “The criminals recruited from Akwa Ibom in collaboration with Hope Uzodinma’s political agents started the printing of these fake voting materials midnight of Thursday 8th November, 2023, inside Okigwe LGA Council.
“Some INEC officials in Imo State are part of this printing of fake election materials. The plan was to deliver these fake voting materials to the polling units while the original voting materials were used by APC election riggers.
“The second option will be to thumbprint the fake ballot papers and write the results ahead of time with the fake voting materials and smuggle them in during result collation.
“We are raising the alarm on the ongoing desperate rigging plans of Hope Uzodinma so that Imo State people should wake up and foil every plot to swap their votes.
“Also, other party agents and election observers must ensure that the original INEC materials are used during the election and during collation. Ndimo and the party agents should insist that their votes are counted at the ward levels and that they should follow through to the collection centers.
“People should get hold of strangers around the voting areas who are not INEC staff because they are likely the imported election riggers.
“For the second time, we are warning INEC officials, adhoc staff, POs, and party agents not to be part of the election rigging in Imo State to avoid severe consequences. As much as we don’t trust Nigeria and her fraudulent elections.
“We also do not want INEC to use fake results to legitimise Hope Uzodinma’s killings and destructions against the wishes of the people.”
