The Peoples Democratic Party in Cross River State has rejected the result of the February 26 bye-election for the Ogoja/Yala Federal House of Representatives seat.
Speaking at a news conference in Calabar, on Tuesday, the state Chairman of the party, Venatius Ikem, said the election was marred by malpractices and violence, insisting that the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mike Usibe, won the election.
He accused some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission of compromising the electoral process in favour of the All Progressives Congress, whose candidate, Jude Ngaji, was declared winner by the returning officer, John Edor.
According to him, “We reject in totality the results announced by the Returning Officer in the Saturday, February 26, bye-election for the House of Representatives seat for Ogoja/Yala, in which the APC candidate was wrongfully declared a winner, because he did not score the majority of valid votes cast in that election.
“The bye-election was characterised by massive irregularities, including violence, orchestrated by the APC-led government and her officials who snatched ballot boxes and other election materials at will at gun point and manipulated the results to their advantage.”
He also alleged and demanded “as a matter of urgency the disbandment of the Special Police units under the Chief Security Officer of the Governor, which he is using for thuggery and political purposes, raining mayhem on innocent voters, contrary to all expectations of a neutral state security outfit.”
Ikem also made other demands, among which is “that the Independent National Electoral Commission investigates its staff, especially one Mr. Toyin, an Assistant Director or Deputy Director in the Commission’s office in Calabar in charge of the IT unit, with a view to unravelling his interference with the BVAS machines deployed for the election, which he claimed that 5 units were missing
before the election, and which were alleged to have suddenly emerged at election centres.
“We demand that Mr. Festus Okoye (National Commissioner) be equally investigated and never again posted for election duty to Cross River State, because he has shown clearly that he comes
here at the behest of Governor Ayade and to do his dirty work of subverting the will of the electorate in the state.
“Most importantly, we demand that INEC should produce all BVAS machines used for the election to ascertain if the accreditation recorded in the machines corresponds with the number of votes declared by the Returning Officer in the February 26 bye-election.”
He said the party has evidence to prove that the election was rigged in favour of the All Progressives Congress and hoped that the result will be upturned through legal processes in favour of the PDP.
Video clips of the alleged violence and ballot box snatching by the APC officials were shown to journalists at the venue of the event.
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