APC, other parties reject Gombe LG poll

Opposition political parties in Gombe State, including the All Progressives Congress (APC) say they will reject the outcome of Saturday’s local government election because of what they called the mess of the exercise.

The APC Caretaker Committee chairman Hon. Idi Barde Gubana, in a statement issued on behalf of other political parties and made available to newsmen in Abuja, said the election materials were messed up at the various Gombe State Independent Commission (GOSIEC) Local Government offices across the state.

Gubana also claimed that the council poll was handled as if it was an affair for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alone.

He said, "You recall  that GOSIEC fixed the election for today (Saturday) for which the people of the state had looked forward to with hope that at last freedom is knocking at their door steps.

"There are 11 Local Government Areas spread across 3 Senatorial Districts of Gombe South, North and Central.

"In two Senatorial Zones of Gombe South and Central, no election is going on and this is authoritative.

"As I speak, our agents are still keeping vigil at those offices with the excuse from the scanty GOSIEC Officials on ground that they were still waiting for result sheets.

"Again in Gombe which is in the Northern Senatorial Zone, while agents are still waiting at the GOSIEC Offices to collect  materials, information reached us that election is on-going in some Polling Units to our utter dismay.

"We have issued this statement to let the people of the state know that any result declared in any part of the state should be seen as what it is, a fraud and nothing more than the sheet of paper it is written on."

Meanwhile, a pro-APC political group in Gombe State, Inuwa organisation Network, yesterday said that no local government election took place due to non availabilities of voting materials, result sheets and other sensitive materials meant for the exercise across the state.

The spokesperson of the group, Kabir Mohammed, in a statement, called on the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) to fix another date for the exercise.

Mohammed appealed to GSIEC Chairman to consider the advice to ensure that his agency deliver a credible election to all political parties in the contest.