…Says Alleged Discovery of AI-Generated Pictures, Suspicious Redeployment of Staff Cannot Be Ignored.
Umuahia — The Secretary General of The Abia Patriots (TAP), Mazi Adindu Madumere, has raised a resounding alarm over what the influential socio-political and civil liberty organization described as disturbing signals targeted at compromising the integrity of the forthcoming elections in Abia State.
In a strongly worded press statement issued in Umuahia on Monday and made available to newsmen, Mazi Madumere invoked the proverbial “cry wolf” technique, warning that even if previous alarms about electoral manipulation were dismissed as false, Abians cannot afford to remain silent in the face of the current weighty allegations confronting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to the statement, TAP said it has been inundated with credible reports and public outcry over the alleged discovery of AI-generated pictures in the INEC voters register displayed in several wards across the state, as well as speculations over suspicious redeployment of key staff of the electoral umpire in Abia.
The organization noted that while it would not rush to draw conclusions, the combination of doctored images in the voters register and the untimely redeployment of personnel known for their professional integrity has created palpable tension and deep suspicion among the electorate.
“We may have cried wolf before, but this time the wolf is at the door. When you see AI-generated faces bearing no human identity, bearing no trace to any Abian family, appearing in a register that should contain only verified, biometrically captured citizens, you do not keep quiet. When you see an umpire suddenly reshuffling its critical staff without transparent explanation on the eve of an election, you do not keep quiet. Silence in the face of electoral fraud is complicity,” Mazi Madumere declared in the statement.
TAP therefore called for immediate and far-reaching measures to restore public confidence in the electoral process, including:
1. *An urgent independent forensic audit of the Abia State voters register* by a joint team comprising civil society organizations, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), and international observer groups, to fish out and expunge all fictitious, AI-generated and multiple entries.
2. *Public display and verification of the cleaned register* at all polling units for a minimum of 14 days to allow for citizen-led validation and claims and objections.
3. *A transparent explanation by INEC* on the rationale and criteria for the recent redeployment of staff in Abia State, and the immediate reversal of any redeployment that fails the integrity test.
4. *Deployment of enhanced biometric verification mechanisms*, including real-time facial recognition cross-checks on election day to ensure that only live, verified voters are allowed to vote.
5. *Involvement of the EFCC and ICPC* to investigate the source of funding and technical origin of the alleged AI manipulations.
The group warned that any attempt to sweep the allegations under the carpet would amount to laying a landmine for electoral violence and voter apathy.
Concluding in the voice of The Abia Patriots, Mazi Madumere postulated unequivocally:
“Abians have been sensitized by the good performance of the current administration. They have seen what good governance tastes like, and what it means when government truly works for the people. They have moved from doubt to belief, from cynicism to hope. Therefore, Abians will subsequently do everything lawful, everything democratic, and everything within their collective civic power to resist any attempt, no matter how disguised, sophisticated or nocturnal, to compromise, hijack or truncate the forthcoming elections. The will of Ndi Abia is not negotiable. It must count and it must be counted.”
As at press time, efforts to get the reaction of the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state were unsuccessful.
