Apc

APC's Taraba gov candidate wants state polls cancelled

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Taraba State Senator Aisha Alhassan has called for the cancellation of the elections citing  widespread irregularities and violence.

Addressing a press conference at the party's secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, Senator Aisha Alhassan said the election in Taraba was marred by the attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the elections in its favour.

"As you are very much aware, INEC has declared the Governorship election in Taraba State inconclusive, because - according to the electoral commission - the number of cancelled votes were more than the difference between the votes ganered by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) candidate, that is my humble self, and Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)," she said.

She however said the conclusion by INEC does not reflect what really transpired in the said elections. 

Mrs. Alhassan said the elections did not hold in many wards cutting across many local governments in the state in accordance with INEC guidelines.

"Despite several reports, complaints and protests to INEC ( SPOs, EOs, REC and ROs) by our party field officers, myself and the state party chairman on the irregularities while going on and after, at collation levels, the INEC failed to react and went ahead to accept most of the flawed results,"she added.

She listed the affected Local Governments are: Wukari, Kurmi, Yorro, Karim Lamido, Ardo Kola, Sardauna, Zing, Bali, Lau, Donga and Takum. 

"That's eleven out of the sixteen local governments in which various irregularities were recorded in the State. After much pressure and complaints at the state collation center the INEC cancelled only the results of Donga local government and some few units in the remaining local governments complained of, leaving a chunk of results of other areas complained of," she atressed.

The APC governorship candidate listed the infractions to include; widespread non-use of Card Readers or Destruction of the machines, non accreditation of voters, subversion of the rights of the people to exercise their franchise and use of security agencies by the PDP.

Other infractions according to her include kidnap of electoral officials by the PDP with the help of security agencies, ballot stuffing, collation of results in non-INEC designated areas.

She also alleged that there was deliberate non delivery of electoral materials in many parts of the Local Governments listed and an apparent complicity of INEC officials at all levels in the state who resorted to vote allocations on results sheets, while there is widespread violence that led to injuries and loss of lives.

Speaking earlier, the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun said the APC leadership is in support of its candidate on the election.

 He said the party's candidate is destined to be the first elected female governor in Nigeria, but some people are bent on depriving her of that chance.

Oyegun said denying or rigging her out in the elections will be a very big blow to Nigerian women as they are on the path of making history.

He said appeals have been made to INEC on the transgression meted out in the elections as a result of which a call was made for the cancellation of the results and conduct of a fresh election to determine the winner.