Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto

The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Sokoto State has rejected the declaration of Governor Aminu, Waziri Tambuwal as the winner of the 2019 governorship election in the state, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The party’s Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Sambo, Bello Danchadi, stated this while addressing journalists in Sokoto on Sunday.

Danchadi maintained that the winning margin of 342 votes used to declared the incumbent governor as the winner was far less than the registered voters in polling units where elections were not held, which according to the party contravened the electoral law.

He also said the party had since laid its complaints before the Sokoto office of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) on the breaches of the electoral law and outright electoral malpractice by the ruling PDP during the election.

The spokesman noted that despite their grievances the electoral umpire went ahead to man the declaration of a winner without taking heed of such aforementioned complaints.

“Our complaints also include the denial of potential voters the opportunity to cast their vote in some polling units within a number of local government areas during rerun.

“Similarly, we have also laid complaints that elections were conducted twice in some polling units and figures of the two elections were added up as one election.

“We have also drawn the attention of INEC to a number of polling units that were cancelled as a result of violent attacks by party thugs, while other were arbitrarily cancelled to please certain political party interests.

“In view of the foregoing, we as a political party, deem it necessarily to express our disagreement with the action taken by INEC to declare a winner without giving us a fair hearing in our position as stakeholder in the electoral process,” Danchadi explained.