The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has cautioned Prof. Mahmood Yakubu led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, against tampering with or cancelling already tallied and declared results in 14 local governments in the Bauchi Governorship election.
The PDP handed this warning in a statement signed by its Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Friday and made available to the Next Edition.
The PDP while noting the charged atmosphere in Bauchi state and the level of awareness attained by the people of the state said that any attempt by anybody to touch the already announced results will attract serious consequences to the conspirators.
The statement read in part, “Our party already has full information of plots by certain known top ranking officials of INEC, who have been bribed with huge sums of money by the All Progressives Congress (APC), to widen the scope of result cancellation beyond Tafawa Balewa to 14 more Local Government Areas and hike the number of cancelled votes from 70,000 to 184, 555.
“To achieve this, INEC has been instructed by the APC to cancel already declared results in 230 polling units in 15 LGAs, in the state, cause confusion and pave the way for the APC to manipulate the March 23 Supplementary elections.
“Seeing that our party, the PDP, and our candidate, Senator Bala Mohammed, are inevitably coasting to victory, being that Tafawa Balewa is home to the PDP, the APC is instructing INEC to cancel elections in more local governments where it plans to manipulate the processes and allocate fictitious results for the APC at the March 23 polls.
The PDP stated that such a wicked plot cannot stand, as the people of Bauchi state have fully rallied themselves for a firm resistance.
Ologbondiyan said the party is already in possession of a leaked document from the Bauchi INEC office, which exposed details of this wicked plot against the people of Bauchi state.
“This plot further justifies our stance that even the cancellation of Tafawa Balewa results was orchestrated by the APC and INEC in the ignoble bid to forcefully rob the people of Bauchi state of their choice of the PDP candidate, Senator Bala Mohammed, as their governor.
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The PDP called Nigerians to note that Tafawa Balewa result was cancelled by the state Returning Officer, Prof. Mohammed Kyari, who unilaterally ruled that there was no result for the LGA even when the Collation Officer, Mrs. Dominion Anosike, had informed the commission that there was no incident of cancellation, violence or electoral malpractices at both the polling unit and ward levels.
He stated that though the PDP vehemently rejected the cancellation of Tafawa Balewa, the party stood with the people of Bauchi state, in the determination to go to the supplementary election on March 23 and reinforce their candidate’s victory in Tafawa Balewa LGA.
“This is in addition to the resolve to vehemently resist any attempt by INEC to tamper with already declared results in the other 19 local governments of the state.
The PDP therefore urged the INEC fact-finding committee headed by a National Commissioner to be guided by the extant rules as established in court rulings that the polling units is a base of the elections and that once declaration has been made at the polling units and return of votes established, INEC no longer has powers to influence the results from such polling units.
The PDP further counseled the APC to accept its defeat not only in Bauchi state but also in Sokoto, Benue, Plateau, Kano as well as Adamawa states, and end its shenanigans, as such will amount to naught.
