The Acting Chairman, African Democratic Party (ADC), Kogi state chapter, Comrade Adaji John, has appealed to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu to prevail on the Returning Officer of Kabba-Bunu / Ijumu House of Representative election Dr Ahmed Baba to declare the winner of the election in the constituency.
At a press conference in Lokoja on Monday, the Acting Chairman alleged that some bad elements working with INEC officials have connived to undermined the process of the general election in Kabba-Bunu / Ijumu federal constituency.
According to him , the election which was carried out successfully in the federal constituency on Saturday and result validly obtained with copies of evident of result signed by the Returning Officer, party agents and security officers was not declared 48 hours after the conduct of the election.
“To our dismay the Returning Officer of the election Dr Ahmed Baba after endorsing and authenticating the result has refused to declare a winner in an election where the candidate of my party the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Arch. Salman Idris scored the highest votes.
“We found it expedient to come out and cry to Prof. Yakubu to direct the Returning Officer to go back to the field and declare the result of the election in the interest of peace and fairness” he said.
John expressed disappointment over the conduct of the Returning Officer , saying the act has contravene the electoral law section 51 as amended.
“The INEC officials did not wait to declare the outcome of the election they just absconded to the thin air without declaring the result. We gathered that four units were cancelled for over voting and violence and by Section 51 of the electoral law any election cancelled for whatever reason remain cancelled and we don’t know how and why the cancellation did not affect the presidential and senatorial elections” he queried.
Reacting to the allegation, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Kolawole Matthew refuted the claim by the African Democractic Congress (ADC) that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC issued duly signed result sheet for Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Constituency.
On the contrary, Kolawole said what the ADC candidate is circulating as result is fake, saying “Result were cancelled in two other polling units due to over voting which were not collated by INEC in line with the electoral act, and everybody agreed to it.
He urged the ADC to approach the INEC to argue their case rather than heating up the polity with their fake results.
