The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were at the jugular of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, weekend, accusing the of bias and favouritism in recent elections and polls.
The APC, which expressed worry over the forthcoming supplementary elections, INEC’s decisions on Rivers and Bauchi states, accused INEC of favouring the PDP in its decision to continue collation of the governorship election in Bauchi, instead of holding a re-run in Tafawa Balewa Local Council as it earlier announced.
It alleged that Barr. Festus Okoye, chairman of INEC’s fact-finding committee sent to Bauchi, is a friend of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who hails from Tafawa Balewa Local Government.
In a quick respnse, Mr Okoye dismissed the APC’s allegations as laughable because, as he said, he has neither met nor worked for Dogara, adding that INEC was not interested in who emerged governor in any of the states other than carrying out its constitutional duties.
Also, the PDP accused the electoral umpire of denying its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar access to election materials as ordered by the tribunal, and was working with the APC and the Presidency to frustrate it at the courts, an accusation the INEC dismissed as balderdash because it is yet to receive the court order.
This is as Dr Umar Ardo, a former special assistant to both President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar, advised the electorate in Adamawa State to boycott Saturday’s supplementary election in the state, faulting the decision of the INEC to proceed with the exercise in spite of a court order to the contrary.
How INEC is favouring PDP in Bauchi – APC
In a lengthy statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC berated INEC as well as the PDP for what it described as an unholy alliance between both bodies regarding next Saturday’s supplementary elections as well as the commission’s decision on Bauchi and Rivers states.
“The electoral process was suspended in Rivers State in a very fraudulent circumstance,” the party also added.
On the supplementary elections, APC listed its concerns about the various states where the exercise would hold.
On Benue, the APC claimed that its candidate, Emmanuel Jime, obtained the highest number of votes via the usage of the card reader but noted that “INEC declared the governorship election in Benue State inconclusive, citing an insufficient margin in votes obtained by the APC candidate, Barr. Emmanuel Jime, and the PDP candidate, Governor Samuel Ortom.
“Even though the PDP claims a bogus lead of over 81,000 votes, reports strongly established that this dodgy figure is an aggregate of ‘votes’ obtained by subterfuge, not from the numbers recorded by the card reader.
