Supplementary elections: APC faults INEC’s decision on Bauchi, Rivers, others

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Sunday declared the
latest position by the Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, on the elections in Rivers and Bauchi states as illegal.

INEC had earlier declared the Bauchi governorship election as
inconclusive but after considering a report made available to it by
a fact-finding committee, rescinded its position. It said a new
Returning Officer will resume the collation of the state’s
gubernatorial poll on Tuesday.

Also, the electoral umpire resolved to continue with the
collation of the Rivers state governorship election results that it
had abruptly put on hold following allegations of invasion of some
collation centres by some military and political thugs.

It would be recalled that after the March 9, governorship
elections across the country, the polls in six states – Adamawa,
Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto were declared inconclusive
by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the
electoral process was suspended in Rivers State.

APC spokesman, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, in a statement, differed
with INEC on its reconsideration, claiming that the ruling party
was not given fair hearing in all the decisions.

Further, Issa-Onilu said, “Post election, Nigerians will recall
that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had severally raised alarm
over the plot by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to
use violence, vote-buying and other election malpractices to
subvert the will of the electorate and steal their mandate.

“The shocking events leading to the last-minute postponement of
the presidential election provided clear evidence with PDP agents
caught in different parts of the country with programmed card
readers, sensitive election materials and large cache of weapons
and security paraphernalia.

“Undeterred, the PDP executed its rigging plot through its
agents across the country by unleashing violence, vote-buying and
hijacking election materials to rig and falsify elections
results.

“The result was violent disruption in many polling areas and
over-voting which led to many cancelled votes and ultimately the
supplementary elections and suspended exercise in some states”.

However, full details of the APC’s positions on the affected
states of Benue, Rivers, Sokoto Kano, Adamawa, Plateau and Bauchi
are as stated below:

*BENUE*

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 establish that this dodgy figure is an aggregate
of ‘votes’ obtained by subterfuge not from the numbers recorded by
the card reader.

There were cases in Logo, Gwer-West, Vandeikya, Guma, Buruku and
Gboko Local governments where the card reader was not used.

In Guma, a local government predominated by the APC, zero votes
were allocated to our candidate by thugs loyal to the governor of
the State, as agents of the party were chased away and election
material diverted and ballot papers thumb-printed for the
governorship candidate of the PDP.

In Logo, security reports indicated that the ballot papers were
massively thumb-printed the night before the election day, while a
brazen case of under-age voting supervised by state government
compromised security personnel, was prevalent on the actual day of
voting.

INEC also reported that 41 polling units in Vandeikya did not
use the card reader, as it was the case in many in Gwer-West,
Gwer-East, Gboko and other places.

A coalition of election observers in Benue has since called on
INEC to declare the candidate of the APC, Barr. Emmanuel Jime, the
winner of the governorship polls, in line with the Electoral Act
and we align with the position of these observers.

There is no doubt that our candidate obtained the highest number
of legitimate votes obtained with the usage of the card reader.

*RIVERS*

We are concerned and deeply troubled by the unfolding events in
Rivers State. The APC strongly condemns this horrid dance in Rivers
State. This unholy alliance between Governor Nyesom Wike, PDP and
INEC is to prevent Rivers people from electing a candidate of their
choice by imposing Wike, the PDP candidate on them. It was glaring
that Wike was losing until INEC stepped in to halt the process
apparently to save Wike from impending defeat. INEC must put a halt
to this madness and brazen illegality.

The desperation of the PDP governorship candidate, Governor
Nyesom Wike to remain in office even if it means destroying the
State and killing its people, is throwing the State into turmoil
and crisis.

With regard to the governorship election in Rivers State, APC
has observed with dismay the macabre dance between Wike and INEC in
Rivers State. It is on record that Wike through the Rivers State
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Obo Effanga engaged PDP
card-carrying members as Local Government Area (LGA) Collation
Officers to skew the elections in favour of Wike and the PDP.

We call on the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to
immediately redeploy Mr. Effanga from Rivers State in order to
avoid crisis that may follow the organised crime being executed by
Wike and Obo Effanga to rig and alter the result of the 2019
governorship polls in Rivers State in favour of Wike.

Since the suspension of the electoral process in Rivers State,
Governor Nyesom Wike and the State REC Obo Effanga have been
re-writing and doctoring unit results in Rivers State Government
House to favour Wike.

We are dismayed that some sponsored stakeholders including those
who witnessed the killing of over 40 persons on the 2015
governorship election day alone due to someone’s quest to become
governor by all means, appear to be hoodwinked by the very same
character to believe that security agents especially the Army
should have stayed away to allow a repetition of what happened in
2015.

As a party that was solely at the receiving end of the killings
in Rivers State, the APC believes that the proactive steps taken by
security agents to checkmate a repeat of the 2015 killings and
destructions, is commendable and should be applauded by all
peace-loving people.

We call on Nigerians and the international community not to be
hoodwinked into believing that Nigerian security agencies
interfered in the electoral process in Rivers State. It is a
misleading narrative being planted in the media to particularly
blackmail the military and the federal government into pulling out
security agents from the state, thereby returning the State to the
killing field many of us witnessed before, during and after the
2015 elections.

It is now clear to all that INEC has become deaf and blind to
the fact that Governor Nyesom Wike invaded the Obio/Akpor Collation
Centre with over 200 armed thugs and ordered his security men to
shoot an Army Captain and another soldier providing perimeter
security to the Collation Centre. Wike’s thugs carted away the
electoral materials including both original copies of unit result
sheets and ward collation sheets that were being used for the
collation of results and took them to the Rivers State Government
House where they were filled out with rigged and inflated
figures.

We report that in most of the LGAs in the State, voting had
concluded, results declared at the polling units and collation had
begun before the abrupt suspension of the process. INEC does not
have the power under our Electoral Act to suspend elections that
has already been concluded. We suspect that INEC might be working
to surreptitiously bring in cooked up results credited to
Obio/Akpor LGA to skew the election in favour of Wike. We
vehemently reject this anti-democratic move.

*PLATEAU*

In Plateau state, our comfortable lead is unassailable. We
however urge our members, supporters and indeed the entire Plateau
electorate not to be complacent, but remain focused as we prepare
for the supplementary election that will give our performing
candidate, Governor Simon Lalong a second term in office to
consolidate on his first-term achievement.

*KANO*

The opposition PDP camp in its self-deceit has continued to
delude itself on its nonexistent electoral chance in Nasarawa local
government area. The Kano electorate are not deceived.

Considering what happened in the inconclusive election widely
characterized by PDP vote buying and voter intimidation, relevant
agencies must ensure that such antidemocratic practice is not
repeated.

It is on record how the Kano State Police Commissioner actively
assisted the opposition PDP to rig inside Kano city with the
deployment of police security for Rabiu Kwankwaso loyalists while
state commissioner’s orderlies were withdrawn.

Kano remains an APC state. With the massive votes garnered by
our presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari; the entire incoming
9th National Assembly positions – 3 Senators and 24 House of
Representatives – won by the APC in Kano State; 27 State House of
Assembly seats won by the APC out of 39 and governorship election
victories in all local governments outside Kano metropolitan, there
is no doubt that Kano State is a stronghold and key support base of
the APC.

The APC’s visible achievements in Kano state under Governor
Abdullahi Ganduje are enough to give the party an emphatic victory
in the rerun election. Again, the rerun will be mostly in
APC-controlled rural areas and Nasarawa local government area where
our Deputy Governor, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna is from. Undoubtedly, Kano
state remains an APC stronghold and remains in our firm
control.

*BAUCHI*

We reject INEC’s decision on the governorship election results
from Tafawa Balewa local government area in Bauchi State, as signed
and announced by the electoral body’s National Commissioner and
chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus
Okoye.

While the close relationship between Festus Okoye who chaired
the fact-finding committee and Yakubu Dogara of the PDP is well
known, hence inappropriate for the fact-finding exercise for Bauchi
state, INEC has failed to adhere to the fundamental principle of
fair-hearing by not inviting our agents during the hearing to
ascertain the circumstances leading to the cancellation of the
Tafawa Balewa local government election result.

INEC’s decision is illegal as the electoral body and contravenes
the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended

We reiterate that according to Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as
amended) and INEC Guidelines for 2019 General Elections, the
electoral body is not empowered to reverse any decision taken at
the Collation Centre by the Returning Officer appointed for that
purpose.

Such decisions can only be reversed by a court of law,
especially when INEC cannot approbate and reprobate.

*SOKOTO*

As displayed in the results of the presidential election, Sokoto
is a strong APC state. This rubbishes the suspicious and apparently
stolen results ascribed to the PDP governorship candidate.

It is on record how the PDP candidate and state governor, Aminu
Tambuwal used thugs and fake security agents to scare voters in the
state. This gave PDP agents a free and field day to rig and
manipulate the governorship election.

We are also aware how the huge monies were used to buy votes and
how complicit INEC officials disenfranchised APC members by
purporting that card readers machines stopped working in APC
strongholds..

The forthcoming supplementary election in Sokoto state gives the
APC; our governorship candidate, Aliyu Ahmed and indeed the Sokoto
electorate and an opportunity claim our mandate.

Sokoto state is ready for the Next Level, we must not allow
unpopular elements in the state and their backers in the
discredited PDP to steal their mandate and subvert the will of the
Sokoto electorate.

*ADAMAWA*

In Adamawa, the party had reported over-voting and use of
security personnel to intimidate APC agents and supporters. While
we are confident of our party and candidate Governor Jibrilla
Bindow’s victory ahead of the supplementary election in the state,
we urge all stakeholders to avoid actions that can plunge the state
into crisis.

We equally urge INEC and relevant security agencies to ensure
the supplementary election is free, peaceful and fair compared to
the last inconclusive governorship election in the state which was
characterised by many irregularities and voter intimidation. No
political ambition is worth the life of any voters.

In conclusion, as a party, the APC is very confident of victory
in the forthcoming supplementary elections. Our commitment to free
and fair elections in the county remains resolute. We urge INEC to
ensure that all loopholes that led to rigging, vote buying and
intimidation of voters by the PDP is blocked,” the statement
read.