Police in Ogoja Command have arrested Gabriel Agabi Akwaji, a University lecturer, for allegedly impersonating a Returning Officer during the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Cross River State.

According to reports, Akwaji not only impersonated the original Returning Officer, but he also collated results using fake BIVAS with the intention of misleading INEC with results that were allegedly generated from locations different from the polling units in Yache Ward. It was reported that the BVAS used were reportedly not the ones provided by INEC from Calabar.

Reports gathered revealed that Akwaji presented the results of the Ward at 2:00 pm on Sunday, which raised suspicions, as results from other wards in Yala LGA had been received and collated on Saturday. Akwaji allegedly collated results from the 33 polling units of the Ward and presented them to the INEC Collation Center located at Ogoja, Northern Senatorial District of Cross River state, allegedly driven by a chieftain of the ruling party.

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Further findings showed that some APC stalwarts allegedly arrested and locked up all Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, agents in the area who were supposed to participate in the conduct of the exercise, in order to carry out their nefarious acts while mandating the fake Adhoc Returning Officer, Mr. Gabriel Agabi, to replace Dr. Dominic Abakedi who was originally posted to the ward by INEC.

The Commissioner of Police in charge of elections in the Northern Senatorial District, Zannah Shettima, declined to comment on the matter.