Rabiu Bichi, Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano State, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the party’s governorship candidate, Alhaji Abba Kabir, winner to avoid eruption of violence.
The PDP chairman made the warning on Monday while briefing newsmen on the suspension of the governorship election result collation by INEC.
According to Bichi, “the election has been won by our candidate therefore the INEC should declare our candidate as the winner because we have scored the highest votes.
“We have no problems with the recalling of the Nasarawa results, but we should be declared winners with the already results at hand.
“If you declare us winner, and later you don’t get the results for Nasarawa, you can go for supplementary elections, but you should just declare us winners, final”.
Bichi said INEC had set a bad precedence, adding that it should give the party its mandate to avoid problems.
The electoral body had suspended the collation of the results at the early hours of Monday due to security challenges at the Nasarawa Local Government collation centre.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kano announced that some hoodlums attacked the centre, disrupted the collation and tore the result sheet.
According to him, the commission will re-generate the results from its primary and secondary data base and verify its authenticity with party agents.
Arabi-Shehu had emphasised his assurances of bringing out the final results from Nasarawa Local Government to declare the winner of the elections.
The INEC commissioner assured the political parties and people of the state that nobody would temper with the original results stored in its database.
“Our Primary and Secondary Sources entered in 10 wards of the Nasarawa local government results.
“Therefore, I assure you that the results are intact and we are going to recall them and in the presence of party agents announce them,” he assured.
Meanwhile, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, the PDP governorship candidate in Sokoto State, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare him winner of the Saturday election.
Tambuwal made the call in a special broadcast on Monday in Sokoto, noting that Section 179 (2) of the Constitutional and INEC guidelines were explicit on governorship elections.
INEC on Sunday declared the March 9 governorship election in Sokoto State inconclusive.
The State Returning Officer said the decision was because the 75,403 cancelled votes in 136 polling units was higher than the 3,413 margin difference between Tambuwal’s score and that of the APC candidate.
Prof. Fatima Muktar, Vice Chancellor, Federal University Dutse (FUD), Jigawa, had declared that Tambuwal polled 489, 558 votes while his closest rival, Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu of the APC scored 486, 145 votes.
But Tambuwal said that at present, INEC had not communicated the reasons for cancellation of votes in the 136 polling units.
According to the governor, the question of margin difference is alien to the Nigerian constitution as the law requires majority of votes and 25 per cent of votes cast in two-thirds majority of states of the federation.
“This technical reason of margin differences has not been applied in Osun and Ekiti elections,” Tambuwal said.
He said he obtained a higher number of votes at the concluded election and averred to test the margin principle legally when the “needful had not been done.”
“We are ready to participate in the proposed re-run election and also challenge the decision at the court if the needful is not done.
“We expect INEC to come out boldly and do the needful by declaring the winner.
“I believe that we won the election. INEC and its officials have names to protect by doing the right thing at the right time,” the governor added.
Tambuwal, however, commended security agencies and other participating organs at the election for their commitment that ensured successful and peaceful conduct of the election.
He also commended PDP supporters in Sokoto State for coming out en masse to vote for him and urged them to repeat same when the re-run came up.
No fewer than 51 candidates contested in the election.
