The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has rejected the results of last Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly elections conducted in Zamfara state and vowed to challenge the outcome at the tribunal.
The governorship candidate of APGA in Zamfara state, Sani Abdulahi Shinkafi, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
He said that the party had, after due consultation with party members and having reviewed the results as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), rejected the outcome of the elections in its entirety and would challenge it at the tribunal.
“The result was not the true reflection of the votes cast. We in APGA reject the result in all its entirety.
“Our Party Agents in Bindin, Wonaka, Mada, Kware, Kurya, Dansadau, Cigama and also all areas affected by the armed bandit activities across the 13 Local Government Area of Zamfara State said Smart Card Readers were not used at all during the election,” Shinkafi said.
He accused the security agents and officials of INEC of collaborating with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to manipulate the exercise.
According to him, the security agents, official of the INEC and the state government’s Vigilante Group called ‘’YANSAKAI’’ collaborated to steal the mandate the Zamfara people gave to APGA.
He said, “Our party agents told us how security agents which comprise of the military and Mobile Police overpowered them in some areas to manipulate, allocated and altered the results in connivance with INEC officials to turn down the victory of our party in favour of the APC.
“The results were not the true reflection of the votes cast and we have decided to challenge the results of the election at the Election Petition Tribunal.
“We are also going to challenge the disqualification of APC to field candidates for the elections due to their none conduct of the party’s primary in line with the provision of Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 as Amended.
“We will approach the Election Petition Tribunal on the basis of the irregularities noticed during the elections, and disqualification of the APC Governorship, and State House of Assembly candidates.
“Legally, APC has no valid nominated list of candidates submitted to INEC by the national leadership of the Party. As far we are concerned we did not contest any election with APC candidates.”
He said the election was marred with massive irregularities, votes buying, multiple voting, multi ballot thumb printing, ballot boxes snatching, refusal of presiding officers across the 2,516 polling unit to write results as announced and declared; Ward Collation Centres were deserted by the Ward Collation/Returning Officers of INEC; security agents were aiding and abetting INEC officials in rigging the election in favour of the APC while the opposition parties were left helpless in the whole exercise.
He added that there was also the incidence of the manipulation of the results in eight Local Government Areas which was won by the APGA governorship candidate with wide margin but was turned around in favour of the APC governorship candidate.
He said, “We condemn the militarization of the electoral process in various part of the state; a particular example is the use of Military, Mobile Police and Vigilante Group in Talata Mafara, Shinkafi, Gusau, Maru, Maradun, Tsafe, Kaura Namoda. Mobile Police were also used to alter the result of our House of Assembly Candidate in Talata Mafara 1. He was whisked away by the Security agents attached to the Governor Yari.
“How the people of Zamfara state could be convinced the APC could get more votes during the Governorship Election than it got in the last Presidential Election?”
