Seven governorship candidates in Kaduna State have rejected the election declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission, announcing Senator Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress candidate, as governor-elect in the state.
The candidates, under the aegis of ‘Rescue and Rebuild Gubernatorial Candidates Forum,’ said they rejected the result because there were massive cancellation of votes in most local government areas of the state.
The governorship candidates were among the nine that endorsed the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Isah Kudan prior to Saturday’s governorship election.
They are Young Progressives Party, Allied Peoples Movement, Action Peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Action Alliance, All Progressive Grand Alliance, and the Action Democratic Party.
The PUNCH reported that the state INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Lawal Suleiman Bilbis, from Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, had announced that Sani of the APC polled 730,002 votes while his closest rival, Isah Ashiru Kudan of the PDP scored 719,196 votes.
Bilbis had added that the Labour Party governorship candidate, Jonathan Asake polled 58,283 to come third while the New Nigeria Peoples Party candidate, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, came a distant fourth with 21,405 votes while rejected votes stood at 19,114.
But while addressing a joint press conference in Kaduna on Wednesday, chairman of the forum and governorship candidate of the YPP, Ambassador Sanin Yaya, said they would employ the service of legal practitioners to fight their battle to the end in order for the right thing to be done by the INEC.
He said, “We wish to address you all and other loyal voters in the state on the purported election result declared by INEC which is unacceptable to us and many as well.
“A call on INEC to do the needful on the purported result announced which declared the APC Candidate as winner in the just concluded election.
“On this, we wish to refer you to the Electoral Act 2022.”
He added, “Again, we wish to state clearly that in many polling units in all the local governments Form EC40G were filled by Returning Officers and the number of registered voters who collected their Permanent voters Card in these polling units are more than the margin of lead/win in the governorship election in Kaduna state.
Yaya disclosed that INEC should postpone announcement of results of governorship election in the state until a supplementary election is conducted in the affected polling units where elections were cancelled.
He added, “As well, in every massive cancellation of election result conducted in many polling units during the governorship election in almost all the local governments in the state, especially in Kudan LGA where the election results in two Wards were not entered in the collated governorship election result despite the fact that election was conducted in the polling units of the two wards and the result posted on INEC Result Viewing portal.
“Therefore, our position is that INEC has been compromised by the ruling party despite the fact that they are an umpire that is entrusted to hold a free, fair and credible election.
“We the under-listed political parties are calling on INEC to adhere to the rule of Law, to with immediate effect cancel the governorship result declared earlier.
“Accept the assurances of our effort to save Democracy while we await INEC’s immediate action.”