Coalition of political parties rejects Zamfara polls

A coalition of some aggrieved political parties in Zamfara State has demanded immediate removal of some principal actors in the electoral process for their roles in alleged rigging during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

The coalition comprising PDP, NRM, APGA, Accord Party, NNPP, NUP, APB and YPP, had after a meeting in Gusau, unanimously condemned an alleged plan by the state police commissioner, the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the security operatives to assist the ruling APC rig the March 9 gubernatorial and state assembly elections.

The spokesman of the group, Dauda Ahmed Jangeme, who is the state youth leader of NRM, alleged that the REC, Dr. Asma’u Maikudi, had on the eve of the elections held on Feb. 23 held a suspicious closed door meeting with some politicians in the state.

He said for instance, there was evidence of ballot box snatching, ballot paper stuffing, vote buying and financial inducement in the glare of security agencies, but that nothing was done to stop or arrest the perpetrators.

Dauda explained that to worsen the situation, INEC in the state made a deliberately poor arrangement for the late arrival of election materials to most of the polling units, including the results sheets so that “the planned manipulation of figures in the election results could be actualised.”

He claimed that due to unwarranted intimidation and harassment by security agents, elections were not held in Mada, Wanke and Ruwan Baure under Gusau Local Government, while in Dan Gulbi of Maru Local Government, elections were not held in 31 polling units all due to security harassment to twist the voting pattern in favour of the APC ruling party in the state.

The spokesman said the political parties have no confidence in the INEC Resident Commissioner, the DSS and the police commissioner and therefore strongly call on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the State Security Service to redeploy the security chiefs of Zamfara before the commencement of the forthcoming governorship elections, warning that “this is the only option to guarantee improvement in the conduct of the elections.”

However, INEC in the state through the Director Voter Education and Publicity, Garba Galadima, denied the allegations. The Commissioner of Police, Mr Celestine Okoye, also said the allegations as baseless.