John Adams, Minna
Angered by the outcome of Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in Niger State, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday night, staged a walkout from the collation centre at the INEC headquarters in Minna.
The party also refused to sign the final results sheet for the governorship election. The action of the party might be linked with the alleged large-scale irregularities that characterised the voting process.
However, about the time of filling this reports, there was no official reaction from the PDP over the outcome of the election.
But a few hours after the announcement of the results, a group of PDP women on Monday protested the outcome of the governorship election held in the state.
The women were led by Hajia Talatu Salka, a former member of the state House of Assembly; Hajia Sadaatu Kolo, House Representatives candidate in the February 23 National Assembly election and Mrs Dorothy Nuhu.
They moved from the INEC’s office in Minna to the state secretariat of the PDP from where they marched to the residence of the defeated PDP candidate in the governorship election, Umar, Mohammed Nasko.
INEC had declared Alhaji Abubakar, Sani Bello of the APC, winner in the election after polling 526,412 votes as against Umar Nasko’s 298,065 votes.
Singing and chanting, the women decried the conduct of the election and concluded that the INEC had compromised in the conduct of the election.
Hajia Salka said: “We cannot agree with the results dished out by INEC; there is no way after going round the 25 local governments that INEC will say we have not won even in one local government.
“We are told we don’t have a local government; we shall seek redress in court,” Talatu Salka said, before alleging that “our supporters were tortured; people shared wrappers and money on election day.”
On her part, Mrs Nuhu said “there is no way Nasko will not win a local government even his own local government; we reject the result in its entirety.
“The results announced are artificial; they do not have any semblance with what is on the ground,” Nuhu said.
The PDP leadership were not in the secretariat when the protesters stormed the place; also Alhaji Umar Nasko was not available in his residence to receive the protesters.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Sam Egwu, although he was in the office, did not address the protesters when they called.