The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said there are no plans to withdraw IReV passwords from its local government officials ahead of today’s governorship election in Imo State.
In a statement released via its official X account in the early hours of Saturday, INEC explained that the Presiding Officers and not the Assistant Presiding Officer 1 are responsible for uploading results.
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It disclosed that all passwords had been released to the designated officials, and urged the public to keep ignoring fake news on the polls.
The statement read: “The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission has been drawn to a story attributed to unknown “concerned workers” of the Commission that passwords for result upload have been withdrawn from LGA Supervisors for use by APO1s in Imo State. This is untrue. For the avoidance of doubt, Presiding Officers (POs), and not APO1s, are responsible for result upload to the IReV.
“All the passwords have been securely released for use by designated officials in line with the Commission’s procedure. The public should expect more of such insinuations before, during and after the elections and continue to discountance them,” the statement reads.
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However, some opposition parties insisted on the veracity of the news, saying the plot was uncovered at Owerri North.
“It is the INEC statement that is fake news,” an official of a leading party in the election who preferred not to be identified said.
“It is not just enough to dismiss the valuable information which the INEC top hierarchy may actually not be aware of. All they need to do is to investigate who among their staff at Owerri North, a non-Igbo, has been compromised instead of dismissing the useful lead.
“Security agents should ignore this hasty denial and beam their searchlight on activities of the ad hoc staff to forestall any underhand dealing, which the opposition shall definitely resist. We don’t want any breakdown of law and order; let no man create a condition for that,” he warned.
Meanwhile, the security agents have been urged to prevent vote-buying at or around the polling booths, as allegations are rife that the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had released N2 million, N600000, respectively, for this purpose per booth across the state.