Two suspects, Atonyesia Peterside and Naneh Godday, arrested in connection with the printing of fake Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Rivers State, have confessed to the act and narrated their involvement.
Peterside is the CEO of a printing press – Help-Mate Consult Limited, located at 12, Isoko Street D-Line, Port Harcourt, the state capital and Godday, a graphics designer in the company.
The sheets were allegedly planned to be used to rig elections in the December 10 legislative re-run elections in the state.
Recall that the state Governor, Nyesom Wike, had accused the INEC and the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, of collaborating with the All Progressives Congress, APC, to rig the December 10, 2016, legislative rerun in the state.
Wike accused the state APC of printing fake result sheets and other election materials inside a building located at No. 12, Isiokpo Street, D-Line, Port Harcourt.
According to the governor, in collusion with INEC, the APC official printer, Atonyesia Peterside, had printed fake result sheets for seven local government areas in Rivers South-East Senatorial District and Etche Local Government Area in Rivers East Senatorial District.
The INEC had distanced itself from the allegation, saying it had no relationship with the printing press and its arrested director.
In their confession, the duo mentioned an APC Chieftain as the brain behind their involvement in the act.
The owner of the printing press told newsmen in the state at the weekend that he was contracted three months ago by a prominent member of one of the political parties in the state.
He said, “They (Honorable Imachinda) brought a job for us to print.
“He brought certified true copies of the documents and asked us to print them for ‘tribunal matters.’ That was the reason they gave. They said they needed more copies.”
Also, in his confession, Godday, said an APC chieftain in the state gave his boss the electoral materials.
Speaking with newsmen, Godday said he did not know if he was committing an offense since he was only doing his job as a graphics designer.
He said, “My name is Naneh Godday. I hail from Ogoni, Okpoko of Khana Local Government Area, LGA, in Rivers State.
“I’m a staff of Help-Mate Consult Limited, located at 12, Isoko Street; I work as a graffiti designer. I started working with the company late last year.
“On Saturday, I resumed work as normal and I was doing my duties. While we (colleagues from Kalabari and my boss) were inside, some policemen came in and asked us for electoral materials.
“They brutally beat me. They took the materials.
“They asked my boss, Mr. Peterside T., who is the Managing Director, MD of the company where he got the materials from and who employed him.
“He mentioned Honourable Imachinda, an APC chieftain in Rivers State. I don’t know the man, never saw him before.
“But because my boss mentioned his name, I think he is the one in the know of what they needed the materials for.
“For now, that’s all I know about the electoral materials.
“I don’t know if I committed an offence. My boss brought the materials and asked me to work on them.
“I asked if the documents were meant for us (company) or if they were from the INEC because of the way they looked, he said the job was given to him, he didn’t say any other thing.
“He is my boss and he pays me. I only did my job. I was designing the electoral materials.
“They brought a sample of an INEC result which I used to design the one we had,” Godday added.
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