From Maiharaji Altine, Gusau
The Zamfara state Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said it would take the Independent Electoral Commission “INEC) and the Inspector General of Police to court for allegedly violating electoral acts during the just concluded state Assembly by-election.
Addressing a press conference today, the Publicity chairman of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed Birnin Magaji said, “INEC has failed to do its responsibility of conducting a free and fair election in Bakura state Assembly by-election”.
He said, that, “In the beginning, things started on a very good footing but and the end, INEC seemed to compromise and started operating as another Zamfara state Government Agency, doing the bidding for the PDP”.
Ibrahim stressed that, when the exercise commenced on the 5th of December, there were large scale violence in almost all the 114 poling units and nine voting centres across the the local government in order to instill fear into the innocent eligible voters who turned up to exercise their civic rights.
“The complicity of the security agencies in the exercise was so glaring that some of their operatives were used in the intimidation, vote buying and ballot snatching episode”. Said Ibrahim.
He said that, APC had written to the INEC to complain about the irregularities and also sought for the extension of the date for the supplementary election but could not get any response.
“In order to keep records straight, APC had written several letters to INEC on search incidences and expected it to address it properly before going into the supplementary election”. Said Ibrahim.
He stressed that “INEC did not take into cognizance the APC critical role as major as major stakeholders in the exercise and therefore went solo to finish the dirty job it started and that was what informed our decision not to participate in the supplementary election”.
He further explained that, “This is in addition to the placement of safety of lives and properties of all the citizens by our party, instead of partaking and winning of election as we echoed earlier”.
He concluded that, “Gentleman of the press, it is pertinent to note that, APC, INEC and the IGP will meet in court of law to sort out things as per Bakura local government state Assembly by-election election and the supplementary election of 5th and 9th December 2020 respectively”.
