The group is sounding the alarm over plots to rig the 2023 general election

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has sounded the alarm over alleged plots to compromise the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) voter register.

At a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the coalition said the plots had been hatched in 21 states under the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) governors in favor of the party.

He also alleged that legal action had been taken to force the INEC to end the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the upcoming general election.

To back up his claims, CUPP spokesperson Ikenga Ugochinyere presented a copy of the complaint filed in the Federal High Court in Owerri on August 24 and copies of the voter lists with questionable names.

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Mr. Ugochinyere questioned the use of ID photographs of long-deceased people, the names, genders and ages of thousands of registered voters in copies of the register shown on camera.

While PREMIUM TIMES can report that the process of cleaning INEC registration data is underway, many names extracted from the voter register presented by the CUPP are not Nigerians but countries like Cameroon , Togo, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Zambia, among others.

Mr. Ugochinyere also presented instances where photos of registered male voters are named after female voters and vice versa. He linked the development to compromised INEC staff in Imo state and urged the commission to snatch them before the elections.

"Among the registry findings, it is important to note that the majority of foreign names were all born in 1983, whether their photographs show they were old or young.

"It has also been shown that many people were born between 1900 and 1914, but their photographs were of young people.

"Similarly, many photos of men had their gender written as female and vice versa," Mr. Ugochinyere said while showing documents to back up his claims.

He claimed that if electoral fraud allegedly plotted by unnamed senior ruling party officials failed, there could be a call for the suspension of INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.

READ ALSO: 2023 General Elections: DPP urges UN to guard against manipulation

“The intelligence intercepted by the CUPP that led to the discovery of the filed complaint to overturn the BVAS and the exposure of the massive compromise in the voter register cannot be wrong now that the third stage of the conspiracy is to remove the president of INEC through a suspension because the plotters know they cannot obtain the required figures from the National Assembly for an outright dismissal.

"We call on international partners, local and international observer groups, civil society and the general public to assist and protect democracy, because the success of any of these plots will erode the integrity and credibility of the electoral process and will deprive Nigerians of the sovereign right to freely choose their leaders,” he said.

Phone calls to INEC Spokesperson Festus Okoye to clarify INEC's position on the allegation against its staff in Imo State went unanswered.

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