A member of the House of Representatives, Amobi Ogah (LP-Abia), has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to investigate and prosecute the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, over alleged forgery of the 2023 election results.

Mr Ogah, representing the Isikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia in the House of Representatives, made the call in a petition submitted to INEC headquarters in Abuja.

The petition is entitled: “Re: Forgery, Uttering and Tendering Allied Forged Polling Unit Results Sheets Arising out of the 2023 General Elections in Respect of Isikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia by Ms Nkeiruka Chidubem Onyejeocha.”

Mr Ogah, the chairman of the House Committee on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, alleged that Ms Onyejeocha forged election results in the 2023 National Assembly elections in her bid to upturn the outcome of the polls.

Mr Ogah said he and Ms Onyejeocha were among those who contested the Isuikwuato/Umunnecochi Federal Constituency seat during the 2023 general elections.

He said that INEC declared him the winner, and a certificate of return was issued to him, as well as certified copies of the polling units, wards, local government areas and the constituency results relating to the election, including copies downloaded from the I-REV portal.

The lawmaker stated that Ms Onyejeocha proceeded to the election tribunal in Umuahia to challenge the election outcome, praying to be returned as the election winner.

“Surprisingly, in the course of the election tribunal proceedings, Onyejeocha procured and presented a different set of 63 polling unit (PU) results that seemingly had INEC certification on them.

“These 63 results were entirely different from the authentic results issued and certified by your office in Umuahia, Abia and the INEC national headquarters in Abuja.

“It will interest you to know that relevant staff of the INEC office in Umuahia, Abia and those in the ICT unit of your headquarters in Abuja, denied knowledge of the results procured and tendered at the tribunal by Onyejeocha.

“Your staff equally reaffirmed the authenticity of the results tendered by me, which were issued and certified by your commission,” the lawmaker said.

He said it was obvious that the results of the 63 polling units the minister tendered were fake “and a product of a forgery exercise.”

“It is in the light of the above that I call on your office to investigate this obvious act of forgery and prosecute Onyejeocha and all her accomplices.

“I am aware that the extant laws that empower your commission to investigate and prosecute electoral offenders, under which prosecution of offenders have long commenced and even secured convictions,” he said.

Mr Ogah pledged to make available all necessary documents to aid the investigation, including the judgment of the tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal that heard and determined the petition filed by Ms Onyejeocha.

He said the Court of Appeal’s judgment gave credence to the fact that the results tendered by Ms Onyejeocha were not the authentic INEC results, which affirmed the position of the petition on the alleged forgery.

However, in his reaction to the allegations, Femi Oluwagbemi, the special adviser to the minister, described all the allegations as false.

“That is absolutely untrue; it is absolutely incorrect; these are detractors at work, there is nothing correct about that,” he told journalists.

(NAN)