PDP Alleges Army, Police Aided Manipulation of Election Results
Allegations are baseless ,says Army
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna state has accused the Nigerian army and the police for allegedly aiding in the manipulation the results of the May 12 local government elections in the state. In a statement issued yesterday in Kaduna, the PDP alleged that during the elections, some government officials went to some local governments with heavily armed policemen and soldiers, threatening, abducting and bribing returning officers to falsify the results. The statement particularly accused the authorities of the 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna and the Kaduna state police command for allowing their men to help in perpetrating illegalities during the elections. The statement signed by Abraham Catoh, spokesman of the PDP in the state, maintained that elections were conducted peacefully in polling units where the electronic voting machines (EVM) were used, stressing that shortly before the election results were collated, two officials of the state government allegedly “went round some local government areas with heavily armed policemen and soldiers harassing, threatening, abducting and bribing returning officers.” The statement alleged that the returning officers were bullied to falsify figures, change results and declare APC as the winners in those areas. The PDP said: “In local government areas like Igabi, Giwa, Kaduna North, Kubau, Kudan, Lere, Ikara, Birnin Gwari, Soba and Makarfi, the EVMs were not deployed to the polling units hence, no election took place, but surprisingly fake results were announced by the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM) and APC candidates were declared winners. “Furthermore, in contravention of the provisions of Section 23 (2)(a)(b) of the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission Law No. 2, 2018, which states that ‘the returning officer shall announce the results and declare the winner of Elections at Ward Collation Centre in the case of Councillorship Elections and Local Government Collation Centre in the case of Chairmanship election results from Kaduna North, Igabi, Giwa, Birnin Gwari, Lere, Kubau, Ikara, Soba, Makarfi, Sabon Gari, Kudan, Zaria, Kagarko and Sanga local government areas, were not announced at the Ward or Local Government areas as stipulated by the law.”