…Stop collation of results now, PDP tells INEC
…Calls for polls cancellation in Borno, Yobe, others …No plan to go to court “while we are winning”- Ologbondiyan
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to discontinue forthwith the ongoing collation of the results of Saturday’s Presidential election, saying the process was fraught with irregularities manipulations.
This is even as the party called for outright cancellation of results already collated and announced for Borno, Yobe and Zamfara states.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, Deputy Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Tanimu Turaki, said PDP’s over 157, 000 votes rendered invalid in Nasarawa state must be restored without further delay.
He said: “The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, demands, in line with the commitment to a transparent, free and fair election, an immediate halt to the on-going collation of results by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, until data from the smart card reader accreditation at the polling units are made available to all the parties in the election.
“The PDP predicates its demand on available evidence to the effect that data from the card readers are being reconfigured to suit the manipulations, rigging and over-voting already carried out during the election in some states by the All Progressives Congress, APC.
“Already, the PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus has communicated this position of our party to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.”
According to Barrister Tanimu, the PDP has evidence from the smart card reader accreditation data “that what is being announced by INEC has been seriously tampered with and manipulated.
“In the meantime, we demand the immediate and outright cancellation of Presidential election results in Yobe, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Borno states as submitted by INEC presiding officers and ask for the conduct of fresh elections in these states.
“In Yobe, the total number of votes submitted as cast was more than the number of accredited voters. Whereas the number of accredited voters was 601, 056, the total votes cast was 775, 449.
“This is a clear case of over-voting which, by the provisions of the Electoral Act, renders the election null and void. In such instance, the law provides for another election on a day to be fixed by INEC.
“In Zamfara state, no actual voting took place and there was no single result sheet in any polling unit in the entire state. There was an arrest in Shinkafi Local Government, where an APC member was caught thump-printing ballot papers inside his house.
