Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The Delta State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) on Monday morning called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the state governorship election result in which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has established an unassailable lead.
Collation of results from council areas which started on Sunday is expected to end today, and from the results from 19 councils collated so far, the ruling PDP in the state is poised to win the election which was conducted last Saturday.
PDP governorship candidate and incumbent governor Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has garnered a total of 625,454, according to results from the 19 councils as announced by the respective LGA collation officers at the state collation centre in Asaba.
APC’s Ogboru, who is in a distant second has so far scored a total of 152,001. Results from six local government areas are still being expected.
But the APC is calling for cancellation, accusing the PDP of ballot snatching, over voting, vote buying and impunity during the election.
In a statement by the party’s chairman in the state, Jones Erue, the party said the election was marred by violence as three persons were allegedly murdered in cold blood, saying it was the worst election ever conducted in Delta, where thugs armed with weapons, snatched and burnt ballot papers and result sheets in APC strongholds.
Erue alleged that from Delta North to South and Central, thugs had exhibited a rapacious thirst for blood and violence, accusing security agents of aiding the thugs to cart away ballot boxes at the unit, wards and collation centers.
“The object of their gory adventure was to tilt the election results in favour of the PDP. This unpatriotic and satanic objective was indeed achieved but not without exposing their unabashed criminality to grab power so they can subject Deltans to another four years of exploitation and crude pillage of our collective patrimony,” Erue stated.
“Indeed, the disparity between the INEC card readers and records of accreditation and the votes being declared at the collation centers across the state exposed their crass breach of the electoral process and villainous infringement of the law, since the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu, had stated that where there are more voters than the number recorded by the card readers, the results in that area shall be annulled.
“Delta APC condemns and rejects in totality the result of the governorship election held in Delta State on Saturday, March 9, 2019 and calls on the INEC chairman to instantly annul the result and to re-conduct same in the nearest date possible in line with extant laws and with all necessary logistics put in place to ensure a free and fair election.”
The statement concluded that, “INEC has already demonstrated its preparedness to apply drastic measures where there is a clear breach of the electoral process through its suspension of the Rivers State election and we urge the electoral umpire to apply same rule in the case of Delta to further underscore its consistency, commitment and determination to conduct a free and fair elections in all states in Nigeria.”