The All Progressives Congress in Kebbi State blasted the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday for declaring the state’s governorship election inconclusive.
The APC stated that INEC erred in declaring the election inconclusive when its governorship candidate, Dr. Nasir Idris, should have been declared the winner on the first ballot.
On Sunday, Alhaji Abubakar Gari, the Deputy Director-General of the APC Governorship Campaign Council in the state, protested the decision in Abuja.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu had last week declared the results as inconclusive due to massive vote cancellation and over-voting in 20 out of the 21 Local Government Areas in the State.
According to him, while the APC candidate scored 388,358, Mohammed Bande of the Peoples Democratic Party polled 342,980.
“We aggregated the total number of collected PVCs in those polling units and it came to a total of 91,829. And when we checked the results, the two leading political parties in this contest, APC and PDP polled 388,258 and 342,980 votes respectively. When we looked at the difference, it stands at 45,278”, Sa’idu said.
He said the margin between the two candidates was less than the cancelled votes, hence, the need for a re-run.
But Gari, a retired Deputy Comptroller of Customs said there was no need to declare the elections inconclusive, adding that the APC candidate won fair and square.
He said, “Our candidate is leading with 45,278. In some states candidates were declared winners when the margin was a fraction of that. There is no need for a supplementary election.”
“INEC cancelled elections in some polling units because of over voting and violence. It was the PDP that triggered violence in some of the polling units because they know they are our strongholds.
“Despite the PDP’s machinations, we are still very comfortably ahead. Even if it holds supplementary election, we are confident of increasing our margin of victory because all the areas that where the polls were cancelled are our strongholds.”
He therefore urged INEC to immediately declare their candidate as winner of the election so that the people of Kebbi State, like those of other States, will have peace of mind and go about their normal lives.
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