The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described as false, the allegation by the director, New Media, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship campaign, that three INEC staff “are right now maliciously reconfiguring the BVAS machines in the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the forthcoming governorship election in a part of the state in favour of a candidate.”

INEC in a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman Rotimi Oyekanmi, explained that the three persons mentioned were not associated with the configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

Oyekanmi stated that none of the three staff were even in Kogi State at the moment.

According to him, “Mr Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in our Ondo State office in Akure. Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a very close family member hospitalised in Abuja. Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff of the commission.”

He disclosed that “the configuration of BVAS is done simultaneously and exclusively in our offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States professionally, and strictly handled by teams deployed from the national HQ, Abuja.”

Oyekanmi told members of the public to regard the story as fake news, and appealed “to political parties to desist from engaging in malicious rumour-mongering of this nature.”