Less than a week to the March 23 date for the supplementary governorship election in some states, pressure continues to mount on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare Governor Aminu Tambuwal the winner of the March 9 poll in Sokoto State.
There were indications at the weekend that the tension in the seat of the Caliphate may worsen if the incumbent governor, who was enjoying a clear lead in the poll, is denied victory.
The Arewa Youths Coalition has declared that any attempt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC to manipulate the process leading to the election will cause crisis.
Adamu Mohammed, leader of the coalition, in a statement, accused INEC of playing double game.
Mohammed said: “INEC is now applying two rules in the same game. One rule applies to the APC and another rule applies to the PDP and other opposition party. If they apply this rule elsewhere, they should not bring it to Sokoto. We are too politically sophisticated than that. In Sokoto, we are waiting for them. Governor Aminu Tambuwal has already won this election. All Nigerians can take this to any bank. But, if APC and INEC believe they can circumvent the will of the people, we are waiting for them.
“Thank God President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that he is not going to give any APC candidate advantage over others. We pray he keeps to this promise. But, let me warn those around President Buhari that they are playing with fire if they believe they can rig this election in Sokoto. To us in Sokoto and by God’s Grace, Governor Tambuwal will be in office till 2023”.
Also, a top politician from Sokoto, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our reporter that tension is building up in the North-West state over fears of plans to undemocratically stop Tambuwal for another term in office.
The source alleged that even though the governor appears to be the popular choice of his people as shown in the collated result of the guber poll, the power brokers of the APC were bent on taking the state which they consider strategic to the party’s future political plans.
He said: “The powers that be should declare Tambuwal as the authentic winner of the March 9 governorship election in Sokoto State. The collated result showed that he won the election by the simple majority which is what the constitution provides. They should not set the seat of the Caliphate on fire.
“Remember that even President Muhammadu Buhari won his election by the same simple majority. He was declared winner even when elections were yet to be conducted in areas where the exercise could not hold because of one reason or the other.
“A common man on the street of Sokoto knows that Tambuwal won the election. There were so many hurdles the APC, which controls the centre, put before him ahead of the election but he surmounted them all. So, what they could not get democratically, they want by all means through the back door in collaboration with INEC.”
A member of PDP in the state, Tanko Yusuf Abdullahi, declared that the APC and INEC “are day-dreaming if they think they will rig the election in Sokoto”.
To Abdullahi, Tambuwal should start singing victory songs “because Sokoto voters are behind him. But, if APC and INEC plan to rig the election, it is fire for fire. We have been told that they want to repeat what happened in the Osun governorship election where the PDP lost to the APC under controversial circumstances. We are waiting for them”.
Meanwhile, a video recording between the INEC Admin Secretary in Sokoto and a collation officer which trended over the weekend further escalated fears of interference in the coming supplementary election.
The video, in Hausa language but translated to English, showed an exchange between the INEC Admin Secretary in Sokoto and the collation officer.
Below is the exchange between them:
Admin Sec to Collation officer:….This is the number of votes scored by one candidate, this is the total secured by the other candidate and this is the difference in votes between them…
Collation officer: …Yes
Admin officer: You must refer to the total number of registered voters in the cancellation areas and compare that with the margin of votes between the leading candidate and the one next to him, do you understand?
Collation officer: Yes I do
Admin officer: Then you will just announce the votes secured by every candidate but you should not declare the winner, do you understand?
Collation officer: Yes
Admin officer: You will say the election is inconclusive, and you are leaving it to INEC to decide, do you get it?
Collation officer: Yes, I do
Admin officer: You will not declare a winner, do you understand
Collation officer: …Yes
INEC had declared the March 9 governorship election in Sokoto inconclusive and claimed that the decision was because 75,403 votes were cancelled, higher than 3,413 margin difference between the PDP candidate and his rival in APC.
The returning officer, Fatima Mukhtar, said the margin of win was lower than the number of rejected votes, hence, the election was declared inconclusive.
In the results declared by INEC, Tambuwal was leading his closest rival, Ahmed Aliyu of the APC, with a margin of 3,413 votes.
Speaking on the development at a press conference, the governor had observed there was no cause for the election to be declared inconclusive.
Though the governor said INEC was yet to communicate to him the reasons for cancellation of votes in the 136 polling units, he said it was necessary to draw the attention of the electoral umpire to its guidelines for the exercise.
He stated that the issue of margin difference was technical and alien to the Nigerian constitution which stipulates a simple majority and 25 per cent of votes cast in a two-thirds majority of states of the federation, as basis for determining a winner.
“This technical reason of margin differences has not been applied in Osun and Ekiti elections,” Tambuwal said arguing that since he secured the higher number of votes at the concluded election, he ought to have been declared the winner.
He said: “Going by Section 179(2) of the Constitution as amended, there was no clause that gave room for inconclusiveness.”
“The Returning Officer, up till now, has not told us why we should have a re-run in each of the polling units. The Electoral Act is very clear on reasons for re-run or inconclusiveness.
“Where there is violence or malfunctioning card reader machine, what is expected is to record zero vote in such polling unit(s).
“If INEC did not do the needful, I will approach the court to test the viability of the Commission’s technicality.”
Tambuwal argued that votes have been cast and he was clearly ahead with the highest number of votes in more than two-thirds areas of the state.
He said INEC needs to declare the result.
“The trend from Bauchi, Sokoto, Plateau and Adamawa states is worrisome. PDP has won the election in Sokoto and INEC should do the needful.”
Tambuwal, however, added that challenging INEC’s decision in court does not mean the party will boycott the re-run.
“Challenging INEC’s decision in court does not say we will boycott the re-run. We will surely mobilise the electorate and confirm our resounding acceptability to the people of Sokoto State,” he said.
