The Campaign Council of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency has rejected the declaration of the candidate of the ADC, Arc Salman Idris, as the winner of the 25yh February House of Representatives election for the Constituency.
The Collation Officer, Dr Adams Baba who had declared the election inconclusive on Sunday, 26th February in Kabba made a U-turn yesterday, Me bday March 6 and announced the ADC candidate as the winner.
The APC in their reaction to the latest development through a statement signed by the Director General of the Campaign Council, Adesayo Ismail and made available to newsmen in Lokoja said the decision of the the electoral umpire amounted to Electoral fraud.
“We (APC) campaign council is surprised the way a supposed electoral umpire who should not be partisan and could have carried out its duties in line with the relevant laws suddenly turned around at the middle of the game due to alleged inducement to make such pronouncement.
“The ADC as a party knows that they did not win the election squarely but decided to defraud the electorate using all manners of tactics to gain temporary political power.
“The purported declaration in Kabba yesterday is fraudulent. The electoral act and INEC regulations as well as 2022 election guidelines are clear on issues of over voting especially when the lead margins is not in excess of the PVC collected in the affected polling units.”
The statement quoted the relevant section of the law which it relies on as : “Where the margin of lead between the two leading candidates in an election is NOT in excess of the total number of voters who collected their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) in Polling Units where elections are postponed, voided or not held in line with Sections 24(2 & 3), 47(3) and 51(2) of the Electoral Act 2022, the Returning Officer shall decline to make a return for the constituency until polls have been conducted in the affected Polling Units and the results collated into the relevant forms for Declaration and Return.”
Continuing, the statement read apart, “Despite the alleged huge vote buying by ADC with over eighty million naira used to procure votes across the Federal Constituency, it was evidently clear that they could not win hence they used all available means to stampede the supplimentary election that would have disgrace them and their godfather who used money meant for the party presidential campaign, Tinubu/Shettima against the APC in the area.
“We (APC) have already given a matching order to our legal team to approach the Tribunal to reclakm our mandate which was freely and overwhelmingly given to the party on the 25th February, 2022. The lead margins principle settled it all aside other infractions already discovered such as where more than 100 votes were deducted from the APC votes between the ward collation centre and local government collation centre in Ijumu.”
The party advised the Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of the State, Prof. Gabriel Longpet to excuse himself from the commission, stressing that his hands are not clean, “It is unheard off that a reputable commission like INEC could not hold on to its earlier stand of holding supplimentary election in line with the commission regulations and guidelines, 2022, since elections were cancelled in some polling units.”
The Campaign council called on their party faithful to remain calm, peaceful and law abiding as the party will use all legal means.
End.
