Taraba APC asks police to arrest ex-speaker

The Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State, Alhaji Hassan Ardo, has called on security agents in the state to arrest the immediate past speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Mr. Abel Diah, for alleged multiple registration.
 The APC chairman made the call yesterday during the meeting of stakeholders in the state at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Jalingo.
The meeting was preparatory to tomorrow’s rerun elections for the Kurmi, Gashaka and Sardauna Federal Constituency of the state.
Ardo observed that the name and photograph of Diah, who is the PDP candidate in the election, appeared conspicuously in three places on the INEC voters’ register meant for use at the rerun election.
The chairman displayed a copy of the current voters’ register before the stakeholders, saying it was criminal for a voter to register more than once.
He said that Diah’s photographs and other details did not only appear on page 34 of the voters’ register, but also appeared twice on page 78, showing him wearing different clothes and with different numbers.
Ardo lamented that beside Diah, there were other cases of multiple registration by other 200 voters, mainly the members of his extended family, on the voters’ register of his polling unit in Vakkude Mbambam, Warwar Ward in Mbamnga constituency of Sardauna Local Government Area of the state.
The state’s commissioner of police, Alhaji Shaba Alkali, director of Department of State Security (DSS) and other stakeholders at the meeting expressed their shock over the revelation made by the APC chairman, urging INEC to take appropriate action before the rerun election.