The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Benue said it has intercepted one Terver Ankembe with some booklets belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Konshisha Local Government area of Benue State.
Although Ankembe is currently on the run, he was confronted while registering names of members of the public in Iwanyam Council Ward, Awaji Annex polling unit, in Konshisha LG, in “INEC Register of Voters Form EC1A“, collecting their PVCs and giving them N200 claiming his intention was to get them ready for easy voting come next Saturday.
Addressing newsmen in Makurdi on Monday, Chairman of PDP in Iwanyam Council Ward, Konshisha LGA, Mr. Alaaga Akav said the suspect was caught with supposed INEC booklets with which he was registering electorates and retrieving their PVCs for as low as N200.
“I was about going to market in Oju LG when I saw many people in my polling unit. I didn’t know what they were doing so I left for the market but after a while, the Secretary of the party alerted me of what was happening and I hurriedly went back home.
“When I got to the scene, I saw Terver who is a member of APC in my ward writing names and collecting PVCs from our people and when I asked what he was doing with INEC booklets, he said it was an assignment given to him from Makurdi to register voters.
“So I told him to stop and give me the booklet. We started struggling and I forcefully collected the forms from him when my brother joined me and then the boy ran away with booklets he had in his bag.
Mr Akav who said he knew the boy so well since they were from the same ward told newsmen that the suspect, Terver, was hiding in Aliade at the moment.
Our correspondent observed that 18 pages, out of the 100 paged INEC Register Form booklets, have been filled. It was also observed that the names on the original and duplicate pages were different.
Also speaking to newsmen, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Col. Paul Hemba disclosed that the matter had been reported to the Divisional Police Officer in Konshisha who had dispatched his men to search for and apprehend the suspect.
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Hembe who spoke through the Special Assistant to the Governor on Security Matters, Mr. Don Korihom, expressed confidence in the security agencies to get to the root of the matter
Meanwhile, the Benue State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Moses Yamu could not confirm the report. He rather promised to find out and get back to journalists on the matter.
However, the state APC Publicity Secretary, James Ornguga has said the suspect was a member of the APC adding, “our party is not aware of that issue and we cannot say the person is a card carrying member of the party.
“As far as I am concerned, the state secretariat has not authorized anybody to carry out such assignment. So we are not aware of the action.”
Reacting to the development, Public Relations Officer of INEC, Mr. Andyer Terkaa said he was not aware of the matter and wondered how anybody would be able to get INEC forms to prosecute such illegal project.
Andyer said INEC has not received any official report to that effect and nobody in Konshisha has reported that some INEC forms were missing.
