Dino Melaye, spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claimed that a viral video shows INEC officials rigging elections for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo state.
Melaye stated this in a Tweet posted alongside a video in the late hours of March 18, 2023.
The video shows three women allegedly caught with already thumb-printed ballot papers during the March 18 governorship and House of Assembly elections.
In the video, some persons could be heard alleging that INEC officials were thumb-printing for APC.
Claim: Video shows INEC officials rigging elections for APC?
Verification
The CDD Election War Room checked and here is what we found.
We observed that the thumbprints on the ballot papers shown in the video were made for different parties, including APC and APGA. Based on the video, seven of the ballots were for APC, four for APGA, and two for PDP.
To confirm the veracity of the video, we reached out to Emmanuel Ben Opara, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Imo state, and he confirmed that the incident actually happened.
Speaking on the identity of the alleged riggers, he said they could be ad-hoc officials but not full staff of the commission.
Opara also said he could not confirm the exact Local Government Area in Imo state where the event happened.
Verdict
The claim that the video shows INEC officials rigging elections for APC is partly true; While the CDD Election War Room confirmed the incident to be true, the thumbprints on the ballot papers seen in the video were for three parties, with a majority going to the APC.
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