PDP, APC trade accusations

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Electoral Commissioner was also accused of being at the center of the failed attempt to move the collation of results of the Adamawa State Governorship election from Yola to Abuja to enable the INEC Returning Officer declare the defeated APC candidate as the winner; a move that was firmly resisted by the people of Adamawa State.

“The PDP cautions that the people of Adamawa State will never surrender their mandate to these reprehensible plots to manipulate the outcome of the re-run governorship election in the State.

“The continued stay of Mallam Yunusa Ari as INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State is heightening tension and is capable of disrupting the peace for which the State is known.

“Mallam Yunusa Ari has clearly become partisan; he has descended into the arena by allegedly taking sides with the APC, a political party in the contest to the extent of directing Electoral Officers to manipulate election results in favour of the APC candidate.

“The PDP therefore demands that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu immediately remove Mallam Yunusa Ari as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State”, Ologunagba said.

Similarly, the Sokoto State Governor and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the Sokoto South Senatorial district, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has petitioned the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),

Prof Mahmood Yakubu, over the listing of polling units where elections had been concluded and results declared for the April 15, 2023 supplementary elections.

The petition by Tambuwal to the INEC Chairman was written by his lawyer, Mr. S.I. Ameh SAN.

Tambuwal expressed the firm hope that what he called, “these obvious irregularities” will be cured, especially having brought them to the notice of the INEC Chairman.

The Governor, in his petition, said:

“Consequent upon the Commission’s publication of the areas slated for the April 15th 2023 rerun across the country, our Client’s attention was drawn to certain Polling Units under his Senatorial District, where elections were successfully conducted, concluded and results validly announced and collated in Forms EC8B (1).

“To our Client’s surprise and chagrin, some of the Polling Units in question, where Elections were duly concluded, have now suddenly resurfaced as part of the places listed for the said proposed Rerun.

“We have, for the purposes of verification, your urgent attention and intervention, compiled the list of the affected Polling Units and urge you to delist the said Polling Units from the list of Polling Units where a rerun Election will take place on the 15th day of April, 2023 in view of the fact that elections cannot be conducted twice in a Polling Unit, which had no issues.

“Attached are the various Forms EC8B (1) properly highlighted, and an itemized summary of the affected Polling Units, for ease of reference.

“We do hope that these obvious irregularities are cured, especially having brought them to your notice and attention promptly and within time.

The Governor, in his petition, expressed the strong belief that the listing of the concluded polling units is the latest in the well-laid and orchestrated plan against him.

He alleged that the February 25, 2023 Sokoto South Senatorial Election was the target of internal and external forces bent on extracting a pound of flesh from Governor Tambuwal.

According to the petition, “Tambuwal was leading comfortably and was awaiting his formal declaration. All of a sudden, violence erupted in some polling units, giving the compromised Resident Electoral Commissioner and field officers the excuse to declare the election inconclusive.

“In their haste and determination to complete their evil design, they still included polling units where elections have been concluded in the list for supplementary elections.

“It is expected that INEC will take a critical look at the list for supplementary elections in Sokoto South Senatorial Zone, clean it up and without delay release the authentic list.

“INEC is also expected to identify their officers involved in this electoral fraud. “Meting out exemplary punishment to them will help break the cycle of impunity and restore the confidence of the people in the electoral process,”, he concluded.

The presidential candidate of the PDP in the February 25, 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has, however, implored the electorate in all the places where supplementary elections will take place on Saturday to come out in large numbers to cast their ballot for the PDP.

Atiku, in a press release signed on Thursday by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, specifically called on the voters at polling units where elections will take place in Adamawa and Kebbi on Saturday, 15 April, to ensure that the process of electing PDP state governors and federal and state lawmakers in those states and others are completed in a peaceful manner.

According to him, “In both Adamawa and Kebbi States, where supplementary elections shall be held on Saturday, I wish to make a special appeal to the voters in the respective polling units where elections shall be taking place to make sure that the PDP enjoys overwhelming support through their votes.

“It is an established fact that the APC ((All Progressives Congress) has failed the people of this country and, especially, in Kebbi State, the more reason it is incumbent on the electorate to vote them out and return the PDP”, Atiku was quoted to have said in Yola where he will be casting his vote Saturday”.

In Kebbi State where the electorate will also be voting in an inconclusive governorship election, the ruling APC in the state is blowing hot. The party has asked INEC to remove the state collation Officer before today’s exercise.

The APC Chairman Kebbi State Publicity Committee for the state Governorship Campaign, Alhajl Kabiru Sani Giant, has called on the National Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC], Professor Yakubu Mamudu, to urgently removed the Kebbi State election Collation Officer, Professor Yusuf Saidu, for allegedly being bias and sentimental in the just concluded Governorship and State Assembly Elections.

He added that the removal of the Collation officer will bring sanity to the re-run of the said elections adding that the APC in the State is not conformable with the Collation Officer due to is alleged alliance with the other political parties.

“ I urged INEC’s Returning Officer Professor Yusuf Sa’idu who on Monday declared the results to be inconclusive due to what he said was cancellation of polling unit results in 20 of the state’s 21 local governments should be changed for the next reruning elections” he said.

Nigerians in general and voters in the affected areas, where supplementary elections will be held today, in particular, are however hoping that the Professor Mahmood Yakubu -led Commission would conduct the supplementary polls in a manner that will not only be free, fair, transparent and credible, but will also be generally acceptable by all.

According to observers, the supplementary elections, if well conducted and managed, are capable of helping to shore up the image of INEC and reduce litigations that have trailed the outcomes of the February 25, and March 18 presidential and governorship elections respectively.

The ball, certainly, is right now in the court of the Commission.