Oshiomhole: Underwear bomber Abdulmutallab is on the voter register

Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo state, has alleged that the portrait of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian convicted for terrorism in the US, is on a fake voter register in the state.

Speaking when John Bray, US consul general, visited him in Lagos, Oshiomhole said he was shocked to see the portrait of the “underwear bomber” in the fake register, but with a Benin name.

On December 25, 2009, Abdulmutallab was caught aboard an airline while trying to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear.

“I was shocked to find the portrait of Mr Abdulmutalab, and that will interest your Excellency, the young man who has been jailed in the US for a terrorist act,” he said.

“His portrait is in the fake voter’s register with a Benin name under it. I am sure if you look at the face, if we don’t know the face, you the US officials know the face. And you find the name under it, that it is a Benin name in Ovia south-west.

“We have evidence of two versions of voter’s register – the one they have officially distributed and the one that some elements within the ICT in INEC have also produced in Abuja. And what they have done in the past, which we hear they want to re-enact again, is that whereas they will display one voter’s register which is reasonably accurate, there are still some flaws but let me say it is about 85 percent accurate, they also have a fake one which they intend to bring and spring a surprise in certain locations where they believe that they have no chance, and when the voters go there and you find a voter’s register different from the one that you know, there will be confusion in those voting centres.

“At the end, you may end up having people’s voice level going up and one thing leading to the other, and you could have violence. We will show you those samples between the one that we know and the one we have gotten through our intelligence and I want to give a copy to the embassy, and so you can study it and see it. That, for me, is the only thing I am worried about. If the INEC has two versions of voter register and they display one officially, then we have a problem. And the reason why this is extremely worrisome for me is that in my election in 2012, INEC tried to use this method to disenfranchise many of our supporters.”

Oshiomhole also faulted INEC for allegedly registering some PDP members as election observers.

He said a PDP leader in his community was registered as an observer, and some of the thugs hired by the individual, whom he identified as “Tenebe”, engaged the police in a shootout on Monday night.

“Last night, in my local government, one of the PDP leaders, who incidentally is on the list of INEC observers, I can be very specific, one Tenebe. We have information that he got boys around and they were shooting but the police went to apprehend them; they engaged the police in a shooting,” he said.

“The police had to go and reinforce. As we speak, I don’t have information as to how that was settled. If you have people like this engaged in violence, then it poses a challenge.

“Unfortunately, it takes more than one hand in this case to achieve a free and fair election. All the political parties must be committed to putting away this thing.”