The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has said that the revelation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it has discovered 23 staff, who are behind fake registration, has vindicated them.

The CUPP had a few weeks ago through its spokesman, alleged that fake registrations were noticed in the exercise and that it had been compromised by some of the INEC staff.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday at the third quarterly meeting with political parties said after a rigorous clean-up of the data using the automated biometric identification system (ABIS), 2,780,756 (22.6%) of the registrants were identified as ineligible and invalidated.

But the CUPP in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere said INEC confirmation has vindicated the opposition parties, who uncovered the Imo APC-sponsored plot last month.

CUPP hailed INEC for uncovering, deleting over 2.7 million fake registrations and identifying 23 personnel, who carried out the fake voter registrations.

The Coalition also said that with this, ‘Omuma’ magic had been deleted.

The Coalition and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) said with this vindication, a national honour should be conferred on CUPP spokesman, Ugochinyere for this laudable exposure.

The opposition parties called on the Inspector General of Police to do the needful by arresting those behind this evil act.

They also called on him to ensure the release of INEC Staff, Chidiebere currently in detention in Imo state.

CUPP said: “At a meeting today, INEC confirmed our intelligence discovery. The INEC Chairman had said that after a rigorous cleaning-up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), a total of 2,780,756 (22.6%) were identified as ineligible registrants and invalidated from the record, among them double/multiple registrants, underage persons and completely fake registrations.

“The Commission deployed thousands of diligent staff for the CVR exercise and the vast majority of them discharged their duties conscientiously. Unfortunately, a few of them did not.

“The fictitious registrations were carried out by some of our Registration Officers involved in the field exercise and could easily be traced. Each registration machine is operated using an access code tied to a dedicated e-mail assigned to staff.

“There is, therefore, an audit trail that gives the total number of persons registered by each official involved in the registration exercise. In some cases, some of them made as many as 40 attempts or more to register one fake voter. As a result, the Commission has so far identified 23 Registration Officers involved in this unethical conduct and disciplinary action has commenced.

“INEC has done the needful by deleting these fake registrations. We urge the IG of the Police to arrest the culprits. Again, the APC-led government has been disgraced and their plot to rig the election was thwarted. We at the opposition will not rest. We will continue to do the needful, and ensure that Nigerians get the free and fair election they deserve,” it added.