We’ll Challenge Almost All Governorship Poll Results At Tribunal – PDP

We’ll Challenge Almost All Governorship Poll Results At Tribunal – PDP

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Diran Odeyemi, has said the party will challenge the results of the governorship poll in states where the party lost at the Election Petitions Tribunal.

The PDP chief, who spoke in a telephone
interview with our correspondent on Friday, also said the national
body would support the governorship candidates during their legal
battles.

Odeyemi said, “There is no doubt about that. We are
going to the tribunal to challenge the results of the elections where we
believe we have been rigged out. If we are challenging the presidential
election at the tribunal, rest assured that we will challenge the
governorship election because we know that we have been rigged out in
many states.

“We are still collating the results from all the states. As soon as we finish collating them, we will head for the tribunal.

He
added, “The national body has never abandoned anybody. They have always
contributed to the electoral success and they are not abandoning
anybody. That is why national officers are spread all over the country,
so there is no national officer in any state that has not been reporting
to the national office and the national office knows what is happening
in all the states.”

Meanwhile, no fewer than eight candidates who
lost the governorship election in their respective states have also
expressed their readiness to approach election petitions tribunal to
challenge the results of the election.

In Ogun State, for
example, the candidate of the Allied People’s Movement, Adekunle
Akinlade, rejected the result declared by INEC, due to what he described
as manipulation, saying he would go to tribunal.

The Labour
Party in the state has said it will also go to the tribunal over its
exclusion from the ballot paper for the governorship election.

In
Lagos State, the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Chief Owolabi
Silas, has rejected the result of the election, saying he will seek
redress at the tribunal. He alleged that the APC colluded with INEC to
manipulate the result of the election.

In Akwa Ibom State, the
candidate of the APC in the election, Nsima Ekere, said he would go to
the tribunal to challenge the victory of the ruling PDP in the state. He
claimed that he won in 26 out of 31 local government areas in the
state.

“We have evidence and we will use appropriate legal means to reclaim the mandate. I urge you all to remain calm,” he added.

In
Ebonyi State, the candidate of the APC in the election, Senator Sonni
Ogbuoji, who had earlier rejected the results of the exercise and called
for its cancellation, said he would go to the tribunal.

In Kwara
State, the candidate of the Alternative Party of Nigeria, Mohammed
Abubakar, said he would file his petition before the tribunal within one
week to challenge the omission of his party’s logo on the ballot paper.

He
said he had petitioned the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, over the
incident. On the other hand, the PDP Chairman in the state, Kolawole
Shittu, said the legal team of the party was still reviewing the
results.

In Cross River State, the candidate of the Young
Democratic Party, Mr Emmanuel Undie, said he would go to the tribunal,
alleging that the level of irregularities and rigging thwarted the will
of the people.

Meanwhile, the APC Publicity Secretary in Delta
State, Sylvester Imonina, said the party would go to the tribunal,
adding that the party had begun gathering documents that it would use as
evidence.

But, in Oyo State, the state chairman of the APC,
Chief Akin Oke, said the party was considering going to the tribunal to
challenge the victory of the PDP in the election.