How I foiled plot to rig Akwa Ibom elections in 2019 – Igini

A former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, has revealed how politicians allegedly printed fake election result sheets with pre-written results and flew them into Akwa Ibom State ahead of the 2019 governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

Igini, who served as the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom at the time, disclosed this during an interview on Trust TV on Wednesday.

He said the plot was uncovered about 48 hours before the elections through an intelligence report indicating that the politicians had printed fake result sheets containing predetermined results for 26 of the state’s 31 local government areas.

According to him, the documents were flown into Uyo, the state capital, aboard a chartered aircraft in an alleged attempt to manipulate the election outcome.

Igini said he immediately acted on the intelligence by rushing to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) branch in Uyo, where INEC’s sensitive election materials were being kept.

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He explained that he personally signed and endorsed the original result sheets for all 2,980 polling units in the state, a process that took approximately five hours.

“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 electoral commissioner explained that endorsing the original result sheets helped prevent the alleged fake documents from being used to alter the outcome of the elections.

He said the move rendered the pre-filled sheets brought into the state ineffective because the authentic result sheets had already been signed and endorsed.

Igini maintained that the intervention was crucial to protecting the integrity of the 2019 elections in Akwa Ibom, arguing that the alleged scheme could have produced an outcome different from the choices made by voters at polling units.

His account highlights the risks posed by electoral fraud and attempts to manipulate results before voting takes place, as well as the importance of intelligence gathering, proper handling of sensitive election materials and safeguards against the substitution of authentic result sheets.

The 2019 governorship and State House of Assembly elections were held across Nigeria on March 9, following the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 23.