UPDATE! Supplementary Governorship Elections: APC alleges fraud in all states except Plateau

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged fraud in the governorship elections in five of the six states where supplementary elections have been scheduled.

The electoral commission, INEC, has fixed March 23 for supplementary elections in six states (Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto) where elections were declared inconclusive.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how INEC declared the elections in the six states inconclusive. because the margin of victory was less than the cancelled votes in each of the states.

Of the six states, the main opposition party, PDP, was leading in five, while the APC was leading in Plateau.

The ruling party faulted the elections or the result colaltion process in the five states it was trailing but commended the process in Plateau.

The APC also accused INEC of conniving with the PDP in Rivers where the electoral commission is yet to declare the results of the governorship election.

The APC stated its stance in a statement by its spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu

SEE MR ISSA-ONILU’S FULL STATEMENT BELOW.

INEC’s Supplementary Elections, Illegal Decisions on Rivers, Bauchi States: Our Stand!

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). The electoral process was also suspended in Rivers state in a very fraudulent circumstance.

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.

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.

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