SaharaReporters has also observed that some provisions have been inserted into the INEC guidelines for the 2023 elections to serve the purpose.

A plot to rig the results of the 2023 elections that rest largely on the credibility and fidelity of polling unit results has been uncovered by SaharaReporters.

Even though the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and polling unit results will be uploaded to the INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the plan is that Nigerians will not be allowed to view the results until after the ward collation officers have collated and validated all the clusters of polling units that constitute a ward.

Multiple and reliable sources in the lCT department of INEC have revealed that a powerful politician has successfully compromised key lCT staff members of INEC not to allow polling units results to be viewed by the public on the INEC result view portal.

SaharaReporters has also observed that some provisions have been inserted into the INEC guidelines for the 2023 elections to serve the purpose. The impending threat stands despite the reassurances offered by Professor Mahmood Yakubu to Nigerians and the whole world regarding the BVAS and IReV, the two most important technology inputs to the election, backed by the new Electoral Act.

They will be used but Nigerians will not be allowed to view the uploaded results of polling units until they are validated by collation officers and Registration Area Technical Support (RATECHS) that will be compromised to input fake data at ward collation centres.

SaharaReporters learnt that the new twist is at the instance of an influential politician who is bent on making sure that the polling unit results uploaded to the IReV (results view porter) should not be open to the public to view them until a group of RATECHs, who are to assist ward collation officers validated the polling unit results.

These RATECHs/collation officers, many of whom may be sponsored as ad hoc staff by political actors, have been compromised, hence if they are empowered to validate already declared polling unit results at collation centres before the public can view the results, it amounts to a return to the old way of keeping everyone in the dark while those who have leverage over INEC will fix the results to predetermined outcomes.

On the reason for the sudden change, sources in INEC revealed that it has to do with a compromise at the top level and the explanation to be used as justification is a flimsy claim that just in case there is a mistake on Form EC8A at the polling units, it could be corrected at ward levels that are to be manned by politically vulnerable RATECHs.

According to these sources, that reason is a deception. The source further revealed to SaharaReporters why Nigerians should not buy into the deceit for the following reasons: firstly, the possibility of error at a polling unit during the counting of votes where there are party agents, voters and election observers is highly unlikely and could be easily noted and corrected before all stakeholders than at ward collation centres with limited and reduced numbers of people present where manipulations are more likely?”

According to sources, secondly, ward collation centre is where RATECHs who are lCT experts work, and influential political actors can easily recruit them or their supervising officers to aggregate all polling unit results that could be easily altered. Thirdly, if polling unit results are not allowed to be viewed after they are uploaded at polling units, compromised RATECHs and collation officers at ward level could input additional figures at ward level to upturn the outcome of polling units election results.

Meanwhile, questions have been asked as to why the results from all polling units, the number of accredited voters and scanned (EC8A) can’t be viewed by Nigerians. Similarly, some people have asked why ward collated results and scanned (EC8B) are not uploaded to the public results view porter for transparency of the entire result collation value chain.

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brainint:

Obedients after polling unit proceed to the ward/local government collation centres to ensure results are not tampered with.