Saturday polls: APC, PDP trade rigging allegations
The All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday traded accusations over plots to rig Saturday’s supplementary polls in some states.
The PDP alleged that there were plots by the Federal Government to hijack the March 23 governorship supplementary elections scheduled to hold in six states.
The states are Kano, Sokoto, Benue, Benue, Adamawa and Plateau.
But Justice Abdulaaziz Waziri of the state High Court, Yola, Adamawa State, on Thursday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission not to conduct the elections in the state pending the determination of a counter-affidavit filed by INEC challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain a post-election matter.
However, the PDP said the plot to hijack the election was allegedly hatched at a security meeting by the Presidency with certain top officials of INEC and security agencies.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, raised the alarm at a press briefing in Abuja.
He also said that there was substantial evidence to show that there were some elements within the Presidency and the commission that were planning to subvert the elections, especially in Bauchi and Kano states.
He alleged that the security meeting directed the deployment of 30 personnel of the Department of State Services and 300 riot policemen to each of the states where supplementary election would take place.
Ologbondiyan said the PDP was comfortably leading in all the affected states, stressing that nothing could alter its victory in the elections.
He said, “Our party is informed of how a top Army officer, at the meeting, directed the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, not to ever declare Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike winner of the state governorship election, even when it is clear to all that he won the election.
“We also have details of how a top military officer, who is from Bauchi State, at the meeting directed the INEC chairman not to declare our victorious Bauchi State governorship candidate, Bala Mohammed, as the winner of the Bauchi State governorship election.
“The PDP is also privy to how a director of one of our security agencies, who was at the meeting, undertook to use his agency to deliver Kano State to the APC.
“In spite of all, the PDP wants the Buhari Presidency and the APC to come to terms with the fact that their conspiracies will be of no avail as our candidates are marching to unassailable victory with the people.
PDP makes unfounded claims, plans to disrupt reruns – APC
But the APC said that it would not respond to allegations by the PDP on alleged plan to hijack the supplementary governorship elections until it was fully briefed on the claims by the main opposition party.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, who spoke with one of our correspondents, insisted that he needed to read the details of the PDP allegations before he would react.
He said, “The PDP makes a lot of unfounded claims. We need to know what they are saying in details before we would react. For now, I don’t have them and until I have them, I cannot react.”
Ortom, Jime accuse each other of rigging plan
Also, in Benue State, the governorship candidate of the APC, Emmanuel Jime, and his PDP counterpart, Governor Samuel Ortom, accused each other of plans to manipulate Saturday’s supplementary election in the state.
The APC candidate, in a statement by the Deputy Director of Communications of the Jime/Ode Campaign Organisation, Mr Kula Tersoo, accused the PDP of a plot to disrupt the election by using thugs, buying permanent voter cards and threatening the people to stay away from the polling units.
Tersoo said the APC had received reports from residents in Guma, Logo, Konshisha, Ukum, Ogbadibo, Agatu and Gwer-East, where the PDP thugs had allegedly taken huge sums of money to buy PVCs and threaten people not to come out on the day of the exercise.
But Ortom who spoke to one of our correspondents through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, stated that the APC was known for violence, adding that Fulani herdsmen had openly backed Jime.
He said, “We are aware of the fact that Jime has recruited herdsmen to unleash terror on innocent voters during the rerun so that they can rig in his favour.
“Jime has already engaged militias to come and shoot guns at polling units where the supplementary election is going to hold so that people will run away for the APC to come and rig for Jime.”
But the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Umar Muri, urged Ortom and Jime as well as their party members to be law-abiding.
Speaking during a media briefing on Thursday in Makurdi, the state capital, Muri also warned all intending violators of electoral process during the election in the state.
FG shuts borders in Sokoto, Adamawa, others for reruns
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has directed the closure of the land borders in Adamawa, Benue and Sokoto states with effect from 12 noon of March 22 to 12 noon of March 24, 2019.
The Comptroller-General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede, who disclosed this in a statement, said the decision was taken after the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.), approved it.
NEC deploys three additional RECs in Kano
Meanwhile, INEC has deployed three additional resident electoral commissioners to join their Kano State counterpart, Prof. Riskuwa Shehu-Arabu, to conduct the election in the state.
Shehu-Arabu announced this during a media briefing in Kano on Thursday.
He said, “The REC of Zamfara is already here. Ahmed Bello Mahmood from Kebbi is on his way, Prof. Abdulganiyu Raji is on his way from Ogun and will arrive between today (Thursday) and tomorrow (today); they are here to support me.”
The Kano REC also announced that the commission held meetings with the heads of security agencies as well as political parties in the state to ensure a hitch-free exercise. Punch
