…Highlighting Over 50 Rigging Plots, With Successful Execution of 27 During 2022 CVR And Ongoing Execution of 23 Others

…Discovering Disenfranchisement of 77.7m Citizens of Voting Age And Estimated 20m Ineligible Identities in the Voters List

…Unmasking 12 Major Polls’ Rigging Nigerian States To Watch in February 2023 Presidential Poll As In 2015, 2019

…Frowning at 26 Shrinking Days for Distribution of PVCs And Use of LGAs/Wards instead of 176,846 Polling Units in Nigeria

…Fearing Emergence of 18m “Dead Votes” And 14m “Living Votes”, Totaling 32m Votes Cast in the February 2023 Presidential Poll

…Warning Against Forcing General Voting Population from Ballot Revolution into Street Revolution And Complex Uncertainties

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) and her partners at a 2022 Christmas Day Global Media Conference, held in Enugu, unveiled her 27-Page Special Investigative Report On Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), exposing illegalities and sundry scientific rigging plots and alarming state of insecurity in eastern Nigeria ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

The human rights group highlighted over 50 rigging plots, with successful execution of 27 during 2022 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and the ongoing execution of 23 others, exposing nongovernmental organisation’s discovery of the alleged disenfranchisement of 77.7 million citizens of voting age and estimated 20 million ineligible Identities captured in the voters, unmasking 12 major poll’s rigging Nigerian States to watch in February 2023 presidential election as it was the case in 2015 and 2019.

The body frowned at 26 shrinking days for distribution of PVCs and use of Local Governments Areas (LGAs) and political wards instead of the country’s 176,846 polling units where the scheduled to hold in 2023.

Fearing of the emergence of what it described as 18 million “dead votes” and 14 million “living votes”, totaling 32 million votes to be cast in the February 2023 presidential poll and warning against forcing general voting population from ballot revolution into street revolution and complex uncertainties, the Intersociety said that INEC has been forensically followed and found to have fumbled and wobbled, alarmingly, “to the extent of earning notoriety in the playing of ethnic and religious cards or promotion of ethno-religious divisions as a policy direction.”

Cardinal Objective of the Special Investigative Report

According to the organisation, the cardinal objective of the Special Investigative Report “is to ensure that Nigeria holds crisis or turbulence free, participatory or inclusive and credible General Elections with particular focus on the 25th Feb 2023 Presidential Poll.”

The Intersociety added that “Such Elections cannot credibly and popularly take place without massive enfranchisement through voters’ registration and issuance of Permanent Voters’ Cards to citizens of voting age without discrimination as to their religion, ethnicity and class.

“It must be noted here that Intersociety has nothing against Muslims in the North or South but seriously frowns at them being given undue advantage ahead of others-despite the heterogeneous ethno-religious composition of the country.

“Nigeria is also going to perform a major transfer of power to next sets of leaders at national and sub-national levels on 29th May 2023 and as a result, requires popular and credible General Elections to heal its protracted wounds fueled by deep-seated ethnic and religious divisions and protracted violence against persons and properties orchestrated by murderous state actors and non state actors following long years of bad leaders and leaderships in power.

“Nigeria’s INEC in the instant case (2023 democratic process) had been forensically followed and found to have fumbled and wobbled alarmingly; to the extent of earning notoriety in the playing of ethnic and religious cards or promotion of ethno-religious divisions as a policy”, the rights group said.

Intersociety said it had also carefully followed and monitored INEC, especially since the commencement of 2021/2022 CVR; in line with our belief that it is a moral disservice to the citizenry in a democratic setting for key Democracy and Rights CSOs to sit by and do nothing especially during CVR and PVC distribution exercises only to wake up on Election Day to “monitor polls that have already been massively rigged” using different segregating and disenfranchisement patterns, including discriminatory voters’ registration and distribution of PVCs leading to massive and digital or scientific rigging of such poll.

“It must be clearly pointed out that this Special Investigative Report does not require stress of proof as most of its contents are self evident, requiring no further proofs or explanations as 95% of the data used in compilation of the Report are official data released by INEC.

“The Report is also backed up with a list of 55 References. Intersociety had since June 2021 carefully compiled or documented relevant INEC’s publications and pronouncements regarding the Commission’s preparations ahead of the 2023 General Elections.

“This Special Investigative Report of ours is, therefore, a facts laden exposure, exposing over 50 poll rigging plots by Nigeria’s ‘Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’ ahead of the all-important 25th Feb 2023 Presidential Election.”

The report added:

77.7m Voting Citizens Disenfranchised

The exposed rigging plots included different segregating and discriminating technicalities applied by INEC leading to disenfranchisement of whopping 77.7 million registered and unregistered voters, among them are the destroyed 18.2 million new voters’ registrations arising from the 2022 CVR, over 20 million registered voters denied PVCs since 2019 after having been registered, 9.5 million newly registered voters captured during June 28th 2021 – July 2022 CVR who are yet to be issued with PVCs and 30 million citizens of voting age never registered by INEC as voters in Nigeria especially during the 2021/2022 CVR exercise; totaling 77.7 million.

Many, if not most of these tens of millions of Nigerian citizens of voting age, numbering 77.7 million are strongly believed, from Intersociety’s investigation, to have been massively disenfranchised by the Electoral Body on ethnic and religious grounds.

Arriving At 77.7m Total Disenfranchisements

Our investigative findings above are strengthened by using the 2022 UN population estimates that indentified about 55% or 120m of the Nigeria’s estimated 218.7m as at 20th Dec 2022 as citizens of voting age; out of which, INEC claimed that “it had registered a total of 93.5m as voters ahead of the 2023 General Elections”.

Existence Of Only 44m PVC Holders And 29.5m Non PVC Holders In The Voters’ List

Intersociety had also in the course of its recent investigation identified only 44m of the “registered 93.5m voters” as holders of PVCs while 29.5m of “the total registered voters” are found to be registered without PVCs till date.

Voters’ List Still Polluted With 20m Ineligible Identities

It was also our investigative finding that there still exist in the National Register of Voters estimated 20m ineligible identities among the “93.5m registered voters” being brandished or paraded by INEC.

The breakdown done by Intersociety shows that the number includes estimated 8m underage children, drawn mostly from Muslim underage children captured by INEC as “PVC-registered voters” in 2015, 2019 and 2022. There are also not less than 2m illegal migrants mostly alien Muslims included and “nigerianized” in the Voters’ List dating back since 2015.

In the National Register of Voters, too, are found estimated 4m fake or fictitious names bearing both Nigerian and non Nigerian Christian and Muslim names as well as estimated 6m stolen identities or stolen and diverted PVCs belonging to genuinely registered voters but stolen or diverted from INEC custody by criminal politicians and INEC officials till date.

Intersociety has therefore identified Nigeria’s Voters’ List as the dirtiest and most polluted voters’ list in the world. Nigeria’s Voters’ List also contains the most compromised personal identity data in the whole democratic world.

Among The 44m PVC Holders, 10m Have Compromised Their VINs And Consciences

It was part of Intersociety’s investigative findings that out of the estimated 44m PVC holders as it stands, estimated 10m have compromised their Permanent Voters’ Cards and Voters Identification Numbers or VINs.

Apart from the leadership of the Coalition of the Registered Opposition Political Parties in Nigeria (CUPP) which exposed the above at its press conference of 21st Nov 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), through its National Commissioner for FCT, Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna, Mohammed Haruna, had on Monday, 12th Dec 2022, confirmed the CUPP’s allegation, saying that “some politicians have been buying up Permanent Voters Cards and financially inducing unsuspecting voters to harvest their Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) ahead of the 2023 general elections”.

The leadership of CUPP had at its press conference disclosed that “over 10m PVCs and their VINs have been harvested by political players at the country’s ruling APC in at least 22 States using different phony charities and names and have also harvested over 10m bank accounts of the owners of the compromised over 10m PVCs”.

Though, INEC has joined in raising the alarm, but by law and convention, INEC is inescapably culpable by way of both direct and vicarious liabilities.

18m “Dead Votes” And 14m “Living Votes” May Produce 2023 Presidential Total Vote Scores

There is likely going to be 18m ‘dead votes’ drawn from registered underage children, migrants, fake and stolen identities and other ineligible identities in the Feb 2023 Presidential Poll and if no drastic measure is taken to scuttle this horrendous poll rigging plot, the projected 18m ‘dead votes’ will swallow the expected 14m ‘living votes’, totaling 32m as Feb 2023 Presidential total votes cast.

To arrive at the above, Intersociety projected a maximum of 40m genuine PVC voters as the total number of genuinely registered voting Nigerians capable of voting in the 25th Feb 2023 Presidential Poll.

The 40m PVC voters was derived from 34m of the originally projected 44m PVC holders, out of which, 10m have compromised their consciences and incapable of conscientiously voting presidential candidates of their choice.

Intersociety also projected maximum of 6m new PVC holders between end of Dec 2022 and third week of Feb 2023, if the ongoing “PVC distribution” and its possible extension under request are something to write home about.

This further indicates the likelihood of 40m PVC holders in the end, out of which, 35% or 14m genuine voters are likely to vote at Nigeria’s highly vulnerable, militarized and unsecured 176,846 polling units on 25th Feb 2023.

The voting projections above were arrived at using the Presidential Poll of March 2015 during which out of over 30m total presidential votes, 13.5m votes were fake derived from non PVC manual voting outside Card Reader in which 10.2m was credited to Buhari of APC and 3.3m to Jonathan of PDP.

Worrying, too, is the likelihood of disproportionate representation of the 14m ‘living votes’-along ethnic and religious lines, no thanks to INEC and its discriminatory CVR and PVC distribution exercises in 2015, 2019 and 2022.

Roguish State Of Nigeria’s Voters’ List Covered 2006, 2009, 2015, 2019 And 2022 Periods

It is the finding of Intersociety that the registration of Muslim minors and illegal migrants found its way into the National Register of Voters in 2014/2014 under Prof Attahiru Jega (2010-2015) as INEC Chairman and continued in 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 under Prof Mahmood Yakubu (since 21st Oct 2015) as INEC Chairman. The criminal practice of flooding and polluting the National Register of Voters with fictitious and ghost names in their millions as “registered voters in Nigeria” was first witnessed in 2006-2009 under Prof Maurice Iwu (2005-2010) as INEC Chairman and resurfaced after fifteen years in 2021/2022 under Prof Mahmood Yakubu as current Chairman of INEC.

In a detailed investigation done by Intersociety in 2009 into Anambra State version of the National Register of Voters ahead of the State’s Governorship Poll of Feb 2010, it was discovered that out of the State’s “1.8m registered voters”, only 650,000 were ‘living voters’ while the rest or 1,150,000 represented “dead” or non living identities. Photos of Gani Fawehinmi, Soyinka, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King (Jr.), etc were seen with different names and captured as “voters” in Nnewi South part of Anambra State.

Buhari ‘Scored’ 7.6m Of 10.2m Criminal Manual Votes In 12 Rigging Nigerian States In 2015

The 7,645.798 of 10,184,720 criminal manual votes credited to Muhammad Buhari of APC by INEC in the March 2015 Presidential Election were found to have come from manual voting in 12 major poll rigging Nigerian States of Kano (1.35m manual votes), Katsina (1.05m manual votes), Kaduna (800.112 manual votes), Jigawa (744,112 manual votes), Bauchi (627,048 manual votes), Sokoto (588,730 manual votes), Zamfara (578,730 manual votes), Kebbi (496,565 manual votes), Niger (492,870 manual votes), Borno (317,933 manual votes), Yobe (302,965 manual votes) and Adamawa (296,733 manual votes). Buhari was credited with 10,184,720 from total of 13,536,311 outlawed votes recorded while Jonathan of PDP got only 3,351.591.

Out of the Buhari’s 10,184.720 manual votes from 19 Northern States and FCT, 7,645.798 were recorded in 12 major poll rigging Northern States alone. It is also important to point out that out of ‘15,191.847 votes’ credited to Buhari in the 2015 Presidential Poll, only 5.2m votes came from INEC biometric voting using PVCs.

For instance, the 1,35m manual votes credited to Buhari and his APC in Kano State was out of total of 1,903,000 vote scores comprising 1,35m manual votes and 553,000 votes derived from biometric voter accreditation using PVCs and INEC Smart Card Reader.

In Kastina State, the 1.05m manual votes credited to Buhari and his APC was out of total of 1,35m votes comprising 350,000 votes from biometric voter accreditation using PVCs and INEC Smart Card Reader and 1.05m votes from unlawful manual voting.

Muhammad Buhari of APC had in the March 2015 Presidential Election scored, according to INEC, 15,191,847 votes to beat Dr Goodluck Jonathan of PDP who scored 12,833,162.

The above data and its analysis was disclosed by DeepDive Intelligence and published by the Cable on Dec 8, 2018.

The sources also quoted INEC’s official statistics as their sources, adding that the manual voting in the 12 Northern States including Plateau State was done by bypassing biometric voter accreditation using INEC Smart Card Reader (now BVAS/IReV technologies).

It must be remembered that the INEC Smart Card Reader was introduced into Nigeria’s electoral process and first used in the General Elections of 2015.

The Cable and the DeepDive Intelligence had expertly informed that “INEC Smart Card Reader is a portable electronic voting authentication device configured to read only the PVCs issued by INEC and designed for accreditation process including authentication of eligible voters before voting”.

The two sources also noted that “when a voter’s fingerprint is not identified by INEC’s Smart Card Reader (now BVAS/IReV devices), it means one of the three below: (a) that the voter is not a human being, (b) that the voter is not the authentic owner of the PVC he/she is presenting or (c) there is a calibration error with INEC’s PVC system.

12 Major Poll Rigging Northern Nigerian States To Watch In 2023 Presidential Poll

Detailed investigation and findings made by Intersociety have identified 12 Nigerian States as major poll rigging States to watch in the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll.

The affected 12 Nigerian States include seven North-West States of Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Jigawa, Kebbi and Kaduna; four North-East States of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe and Adamawa; and one North-Central State of Niger.

The 12 major Poll Rigging Nigerian States also have a total of 33,86m registered voters with 95% PVC collection on average and have 35% of the country’s total of 93.5m registered voters. The 12 States host the largest concentration of registered underage and illegal migrants as well as imported criminal thumb-printers of ballot papers.

Apart from being no-go areas for electoral or democracy activists especially during Presidential Polls, the 12 States are also the most boundary/border area porous States in Nigeria where ‘anything goes’ or ‘anything can happen’ during polls particularly during Presidential Polls.

They are specifically notorious for massive poll rigging coordinated by INEC including mass thumb-printing of ballot papers before or during Presidential Elections in restricted and prohibited places.

In 2015 Presidential Poll, 7,645,798 votes of the 10.2m criminal manual votes for Buhari came from the 12 States while 2,348.656 come from other Northern States of Nasarawa, Kwara, Gombe, Taraba, Plateau, Benue, Kogi and FCT.

Only 190,266 of the manual votes for Buhari came from Southern States. Such manual votes derived from outside biometric voter accreditation using PVCs are unlawfully authorized by INEC as “lawful or validly cast votes”.

The territorial and border porosity of the named 12 Northern States have also made them vulnerable for massive presidential poll rigging since 2015.

According to Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Lt. Gen. Lucky Irabor, “out of the 261 sanctioned borders in Nigeria, 137 are unmanned and largely unprotected by the Nigerian security agencies in Northern Nigeria areas of North East and North West involving Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina States, etc-bordering neighboring countries such as Niger Republic and Chad among others” and that “there are 364 approved international border points in Nigeria with 261 in the North East and North West, out of which 137 are unprotected, porous and largely unmanned by security agencies”.
CDS Lucky Irabor stated the above in Lagos on Friday, 30th Sept 2022 while delivering a lecture on “Security, Defense and Development in Nigeria”.

Shrinking PVC Distribution To 26 Days Totally Unacceptable

Intersociety is reiterating its strong opposition and unacceptability to INEC’s shrinking of PVC distribution across the country to only 26 days.

It is totally indicting and strongly suspicious for the Commission that spent eight months or May to Dec 2022 to hide under “enough time to print and distribute PVCs” and end up disenfranchising whopping 77.7m Nigerian citizens of voting age since May 2022 has turned around to shrink the PVC distribution to only “40 days” of ‘12th Dec 2022 to 22nd Jan 2023’.

Immorally added to the 40 days is 14 days of the 2022 Christmas and the 2023 New Year holiday seasons. Therefore, not only that the 26 shrinking days is totally unacceptable but also INEC must extend the deadline till a day to the Presidential Election or 24th Feb 2023. It is further observed that the INEC’s unwillingness to equitably and non-discriminatorily issue PVCs to long waited registered voters in Nigeria numbering 29.5m is most likely seen by the Commission as a serious threat to its poll rigging friendly policies and conducts especially against the backdrop of the 25th Feb 2023.

This is to the extent that the more genuine PVCs in the hands of voters, the slimmer the chances of the Commission to massively and scientifically rig the Feb 2023 Presidential Poll.

Distrusting INEC Ahead Of Feb 2023 Presidential Poll

In all, it is the position of Intersociety that Nigeria’s INEC is gravely gambling and tinkering with the future of Nigerians and Nigeria especially its collective security and corporate existence. The Commission is also manifestly incapable of organizing inclusive, turbulence free, secure, popular and credible Presidential Poll in Nigeria on 25th Feb 2023.

As a matter of fact, the Chairman of the Commission and all its National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners are unfit to continue in office and ought to have resigned en masse. Apart from manifestly playing ethnic and religious cards, the named top officials of INEC are grossly partisan and have reduced themselves to ‘political jobbers’ and errand boys of their appointing and oversight Government authorities having portrayed themselves jointly and individually as card-carrying members/sympathizers of the centrally ruling political party, etc.

A typical case in point was the new RECs and National Commissioners un-popularly nominated by the Presidency and confirmed by the Senate on 6th Oct 2022 in spite of wide criticisms and outcries by the Nigerian public exposing their partisanship and open affiliation with the ruling APC, etc.

INEC To Be Held Liable If Nigeria Is Forced Into Complex Uncertainties After Feb 2023

INEC’s incorrigible stance and its bent on massively and scientifically manipulating the Feb 2023 Presidential Poll may plunge the country into complex uncertainties especially if a candidate with “dead votes” is declared winner of the Feb 2023 Presidential Poll.

We had already written to several international powerful democracies and democratic institutions including the United States to regularly beam their searchlight on INEC especially ahead of Nigeria’s Feb 2023 Presidential Poll and uncompromisingly tie their international funding and technical supports and recognitions to the Commission to credible electoral process accountability.

The international democracy actors have also been called upon to appropriately sanction the entire INEC top management including its National Chairman and all National and Resident Commissioners should they massively compromise the integrity, popularity and acceptability of the 2023 Presidential Poll. It is our firm insistence that the Commission must be compelled to issue PVCs to 29.5m registered Nigerian voters who have been denied the same since 2019 and July 2022.

Accessing And Assessing Full Details Of Our 27-Page Special Investigative Report On INEC

For full details of Intersociety’s 27-Page Special Investigative Report on Nigeria’s INEC, Exposing Illegalities And Sundry Scientific Rigging Plots Ahead Of The 2023 Presidential Poll and a list of 55 References backing the Special Report, follow the links here: https://intersociety-ng.org/nigerias-electoral-commission-masterminded-50-rigging-plots-ahead-of-2023-presidential-election-executed-27-during-continuous-voters-registration-and-brazenly-lined-up-23-others-for/ and https://intersociety-ng.org/list-of-55-statistical-references-backing-intersocietys-special-investigative-report-on-illegalities-of-inec/

Signed, For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety):

Emeka Umeagbalasi, B.Sc., M.Sc., Criminologist/Researcher, Board Chair @ Intersociety; Chinwe Umeche Esquire, LL.B, BL, Head, Democracy and Good Governance Program; Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire, LL.B, BL, Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law; Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire, LL.B, BL; Head, Campaign and Publicity Department; and Ndidiamaka Chinaza Bernard Esquire, LL.B, BL, LLM, Head, International Justice and Human Rights Program.

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