THE ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were at the jugular of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, weekend, accusing the electoral umpire of bias and favouritism in recent elections and planned supplementary polls.
The APC, which expressed worry over the
forthcoming supplementary elections, INEC’s decisions on Rivers and
Bauchi states, accused INEC of favouring the PDP in its decision to
continue collation of the governorship election in Bauchi, instead of
holding a re-run in Tafawa Balewa Local Council as it earlier announced.
It
alleged that Barr. Festus Okoye, chairman of INEC’s fact-finding
committee sent to Bauchi, is a friend of Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who hails from Tafawa Balewa Local
Government.
In a quick respnse, Mr Okoye dismissed the APC’s
allegations as laughable because, as he said, he has neither met nor
worked for Dogara, adding that INEC was not interested in who emerged
governor in any of the states other than carrying out its constitutional
duties.
Also, the PDP accused the electoral umpire of denying
its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar access to election
materials as ordered by the tribunal, and was working with the APC and
the Presidency to frustrate it at the courts, an accusation the INEC
dismissed as balderdash because it is yet to receive the court order.
This
is as Dr Umar Ardo, a former special assistant to both President
Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, advised the
electorate in Adamawa State to boycott Saturday’s supplementary election
in the state, faulting the decision of the INEC to proceed with the
exercise in spite of a court order to the contrary.
How INEC is favouring PDP in Bauchi – APC
In
a lengthy statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre
Issa-Onilu, the APC berated INEC as well as the PDP for what it
described as an unholy alliance between both bodies regarding next
Saturday’s supplementary elections as well as the commission’s decision
on Bauchi and Rivers states.
“The electoral process was suspended in Rivers State in a very fraudulent circumstance,” the party also added.
On the supplementary elections, APC listed its concerns about the various states where the exercise would hold.
On
Benue, the APC claimed that its candidate, Emmanuel Jime, obtained the
highest number of votes via the usage of the card reader but noted that
“INEC declared the governorship election in Benue State inconclusive,
citing an insufficient margin in votes obtained by the APC candidate,
Barr. Emmanuel Jime, and the PDP candidate, Governor Samuel Ortom.
“Even
though the PDP claims a bogus lead of over 81,000 votes, reports
strongly established that this dodgy figure is an aggregate of ‘votes’
obtained by subterfuge, not from the numbers recorded by the card
reader.
Share your thoughts