The Campaign Council of All Progressives Congress in Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, Kogi State, has kicked against the declaration of the candidate of the African Democratic Congress , Arc Salman Idris, as the winner of the just concluded House of Representatives election for the Constituency.
The party, in a statement signed by its Director General of the Campaign Council, Adesayo Ismail described the pronouncement of INEC as Electoral fraud.
The Collation Officer, Dr Adams Baba, on February 26, declared the constituency election inconclusive.
He, however, reversed his decision yesterday and announced the ADC candidate as the winner of the election.
Part of the statement read, “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.”
Ismail said the ADC 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 margin is not in excess of the PVC collected in the affected polling units.”
He added, “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.”
The APC implored the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the State, Prof. Gabriel Longpet to defend himself.
“It is unheard of that a reputable commission like INEC could not hold on to its earlier stand of holding supplementary elections in line with the commission regulations and guidelines, 2022, since elections were cancelled in some polling units,” the statement added.
