The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba state, Aisha Alhassan has called for the outright cancellation of the elections in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the governorship elections inconclusive after cancelling the polls in Donga Local Government Area and some other areas of the state.
However Senator Alhassan has said that the entire electoral process was fraught with irregularities and as such should be cancelled in entirety.
She made the call on Thursday, April 16, 2015, while speaking at a news conference in Abuja.
She said:
“As you are very much aware, INEC has declared the governorship election in Taraba state inconclusive, because – according to the electoral commission – the number of cancelled votes was more than the difference between the votes gathered by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, that is my humble self, and Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”
“However, that conclusion by INEC does not reflect what really transpired in the said elections, hence the need to bring to the attention of Nigerians, and indeed the global community, the true situation. In many wards cutting across many local governments, the elections did not hold in accordance with INEC guidelines.”
“Despite several reports, complaints and protests to INEC ( SPOs, EOs, REC and ROs) by our party field officers, myself and the state party chairman on the irregularities while going on and after, at collation levels, INEC failed to react and went ahead to accept most of the flawed results.”
“At Jibu Ward in Wukari, voting took place in only three out of 27 polling units. At Bantaje Ward, also in Wukari, voting took place in only 11 out of 56 polling units, but results for all the polling units were returned. In Kurmi, card readers were not used at all and election did not take place. The PDP simply relied on security agencies to rig the polls and write results. In Yorro, voting materials were snatched while residences of PDP officials were used for ballot stuffing and writing results. APC agents were brutally beaten and chased out of voting centers.”
“In Karim Lamido, the local government of the present acting governor personally, with the aid of his security escorts, spearheaded ballot snatching and abduction of electoral officials. Card readers were not used in many places, APC agents were chased away and results written in favour of the PDP.”
“It is also pertinent to mention the blatantly partisan and shameful role of INEC in the conduct of the gubernatorial election in the state. The resident electoral commissioner never hid his partisanship and bias, as he ignored all our complaints and petitions.”
“Alternatively, the result of the entire state should be cancelled and a fresh election conducted. This is in view of the widespread irregularities in most of the local government areas of the state.”
Alhassan also urged that the INEC officials in the state be changed before the conduct of fresh elections.
A similar call has been made by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar who also called for security agents deployed for the April 11 elections in Taraba to be replaced.
