Again, a coalition of domestic observers accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission has faulted the electoral umpire’s declaration of New Nigeria Peoples Party candidate, Abba Yusuf, as the winner of the governorship election in Kano State.
Yusuf polled 1,019,602 votes to defeat the current Deputy Governor of the state and governor candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Yusuf Gawuna, who amassed 890,705 votes.
The PUNCH reported that INEC announced Yusuf as the winner at the end of the collation across 44 local government areas in the state.
A statement issued in Abuja on Monday by the Chairman of the Coalition of Domestic Observers, Ali Abacha, however, faulted the declaration.
Abacha urged the commission to carefully re-examine the Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems to authenticate the results churned out from Gwarzo, Tudun Wada, Bagwai, Dala and Fagge local councils of Kano State.
According to him, there were reported cases of irregularities perpetrated in the last elections by some state and non-state actors to undermine the process of election in the affected local councils.
He said, “Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended is very clear on cases like these. We the Coalition of INEC Domestic Observer Groups, therefore, state that the Kano State Governorship and State Assembly Elections conducted on Saturday 18 March 2023 marred by irregularities, violation of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines and do not meet with the best standard democratic practice.
“We are apolitical, neutral and had no affiliation with any political party. As a coalition of election observer groups, we are neither faceless nor partisan has been reported to malign the image of the coalition before the good people of Kano and the nation at large.
“As a coalition of duly accredited INEC Domestic Observer Groups, it has been a tradition that at the end of every election exercise we compile, compare, and a report obtained from various field officers deployed to all the 44 Local Government Areas in Kano State.
“To this end, every data collated by our field officers have been proven to be accurate, reliable, and verifiable without any act of misinformation or mischief intended to hurt, please or malign any particular interest.
“In this context, we wish to affirm categorically that the group never at any time called for the cancellation of the Kano polls. Rather in fairness, we advised that INEC should review results obtained in affected areas where issues of over-voting were reported.
“We have not said anything different from what was reported in other states such as Abia, Adamawa, Enugu and Ogun States. We uphold the Electoral commission in much higher esteem as the umpire mandated by law to conduct elections and announce results.
However, as observer groups, our duty is to identify, observe, report and refer all communications to INEC.”
