A coalition of some aggrieved political parties in Zamfara has demanded for the immediate removal of some principal actors in the electoral process for their roles in the alleged rigging perpetrated during the last Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
The coalition, comprising of the PDP, NRM, APGA, ACCORD party, NNPP, NUP, APB and the YPP, after a meeting, has unanimously condemned the alleged collaborate plan by the state police commissioner, the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the security operatives.
The spokesman of the group, Dauda Ahmed Jangeme, who is the state Youth leader of the NRM alleged that the resident electoral commissioner Dr. Asma’u Maikudi had on the eve of the elections, held a suspicious closed door meeting with some politicians in the state.
He said, for instance, there were evidences of ballot boxes snatching, ballot paper stuffing, vote buying and financial inducement in the glare eyes of security agencies, but nothing was done to stop or arrest the perpetrators.
Dauda explained that to worsen the situation, the state Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made a deliberate poor arrangement for the late arrival of election materials to most of the polling units, including the results sheets so that “the planned manipulation of figures in the election results could be actualized”, he said.
He stressed that due to the unwarranted intimidation and harassment by the security agents, elections were not held in Mada, Wanke and Ruwan Baure under Gusau local government, while in Dan Gulbi of Maru local government, elections were not held in thirty one polling units all due to security harassment to twist the voting pattern in favour of the APC which is ruling party in the state.
The spokesman said the coalition has no confidence in the INEC Resident Commissioner, the DSS and the police commissioner and therefore strongly call on the President Muhammad Buhari, the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the State Security Service to redeploy the security chiefs of Zamfara before the commencement of the forthcoming governorship elections, warning that “this is the only option to guarantee improvement in the conduct of the elections”.
He said in the circumstance, if no action is taken to address the case and cultivate sanity, fair play, tolerance and stable electoral climate, “there is fear that elections results in Zamfara will not be recognized and democratically accepted as being free, fair and just”, Dauda explained.
However, the INEC in the state, through its Director of Voter’s Education and Publicity , Garba Galadima, has denied the allegations.
The state commissioner of police, Celestine Okoye, also said the allegations as baseless.
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