APC rejects local
government election
results in Taraba State
The All Progressives Congress, APC,
in Taraba State has rejected the
results of the February 25 local
government elections in the state
and called on the State Independent
Electoral Commission, SIEC, to
refund the monies it collected from
APC candidates for the election that,
it said, never held.
The State Chairman of the party,
Sani Chul, said this on Wednesday
at a news conference in Jalingo.
Mr. Chul said that the commission
deceived the party by its promise of
a level playing ground for all
political parties and participants
and collected their monies when
they knew that there was not going
to be any election but a mere
charade.
“The chairman of SIEC, Dr Philip
Duwe, had assured us of his
impartiality in the discharge of his
duties but as it turned out, it was
only a false promise.
“What happened was a mere
charade calculated more at inciting
the people than the pretext for an
election. The election was a theatre
of absurdities and in most cases, no
vote was cast at all and yet results
were announced and winners
declared.”
Mr. Chul accused the electoral body
and the Nigeria police of working to
ensure that the entire process was a
failure, citing instances of ballot box
snatching, non delivery of elections
materials, disruption of the process
by violence, and said where election
were not held at all results were
announced and winners declared.
He, therefore, called for the refund
of all the monies the candidates
were “deceived” into paying to
obtain forms under the pretext that
there would be election.
“In the light of the irregularities that
characterised the elections and
given our strong objection to
injustice, we strongly condemn the
conduct of the exercise and reject in
totality its result. We also demand,
as of right, that all the monies paid
to the SIEC for the purchase of forms
by our candidates be refunded
forthwith,” Mr. Chul said.
The Executive Chairman of SIEC,
Philip Duwe, on Monday admitted
that the exercise was not devoid of
challenges but called on all parties
to remain calm, assuring that the
commission had learnt its lessons
and would work to improve on the
process subsequently.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports
that the state Independent Electoral
Commission had on Monday
declared the PDP as the winner of
the 16 chairmanship and 178
councillorship seats in the state.