A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC ) Yekini Nabena has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a lot of questions to answer on the conduct of the governorship election in Bauchi state and it’s decision to jettison the rerun it earlier ordered for Tafawa Balewa local government area.
Nabena
asked the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to forget the dream
of taking over the governorship seat in Bauchi state, saying no magic
can give the PDP Bauchi state having lost all other elections in the
state.
He faulted the INEC’s declaration of People Redemption
Party (PRP) House of Representatives candidate in Bauchi’s Katagum
Federal Constituency as winner of the election, saying such “should have
been declared inconclusive became the number of cancelled votes, 5, 211
is more than the margin of lead which is 4, 704.”
Nabena who is
also the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party said if not
that there was a grand plot to rig out governor Mohammed Abubakar, how
come APC won 21 State House of Assembly seats compared to PDP’s 5 seats
in the state in the election conducted on the same day?
Speaking
with newsmen in Abuja Nabena said the reported nonusage of Card Readers
in Bauch Local Government Area “is a major issue that should not be
disregarded by the electoral empire. The opposition PDP knew that if
rerun election is held it will lose the election to APC.
“Maybe
the opposition felt that if that position had not be taken by INEC, they
would have won. But that is not the issue. The issue of election is not
about winning or losing. It is about having a free and fair election.
So it is the free and fair conduct of the election that matters to all
of us and to the whole world. I say so because if the election is not
free and fair there will be no issue of inconclusive; it must be
concluded. So we are challenging the INEC not to give PDP undue
advantage in Bauchi governorship election.”
He insisted that
there is need for rerun in election at the Tafawa/Balewa LGA, Nabena
said the Returning Officer for the area, Mrs Dominion Anosike, told the
world how she was intimidated and harassed while collating the results.
“She
was even threatened. They threatened to rape her. She was a woman and
she said it herself. The answer is there. There was tension everywhere
in the place and she was forced to sign the document under that
atmosphere.
“I believe APC will win because APC has won 80
percent of the other elections except this election and this one has
been declared inconclusive. Mark you, the results of Tafawa Balewa Local
Government Area has not been announced. But I tell you, you will be
surprised if the result had been announced. We certainly would have won,
that is why they are trying to deny us of the victory. If the hoodlums
had not disrupted the process at the centre we would have won Tafawa
Balewa. So I believe we will win Tafawa Balewa again”.
On the
already declared Katagum Federal House of Reps result in favour of PRP,
Nabena described it as an error on the part of the INEC.
“It is a clear case of inconclusive election because the margin between the PRP candidate and the APC candidate is less than the cancelled votes. So, we are demanding justice if INEC is not deliberately against the APC. “
Source:- Thenationonlineng
Leave a Reply