OYEWALE OLUWASEUN
The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Peoples Democratic Party has declared Saturday’s rerun elections in Rivers State as a rape of democracy.
It also said that the party contested against many government institutions during the polls.
It listed the institutions to include the Nigerian Army, the Independent National Electoral Commission and the All Progressives Congress.
Spokesperson for the faction of the party, Dayo Adeyeye, stated this in a statement in Abuja on Monday.
Adeyeye also rejected the declaration of Magnus Abe as the winner of the Rivers South-East senatorial district election.
He asked the security agencies to stop disgracing Nigeria.
Adeyeye also condemned, in strong terms, the delay by INEC in releasing the remaining results of the polls.
Adeyeye said, “The result, which declared Magnus Abe of the APC winner, is an unprecedented massive manipulation of the electoral process in active connivance with the security agencies.
“The whole world knows that election did not take place in the Rivers South-East senatorial district. We, therefore, reject the victorious declaration of Abe with the fabricated results. We demand INEC to cancel the election in that constituency and conduct a fresh poll.
“We promise to avail ourselves of every opportunity to seek redress on this matter in the interest of democracy and that of the constituents who were denied their right to vote.
“We, again, condemn in totality, the adverse role of the Nigerian Army, the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other security agencies during the rerun elections in Rivers State.
“It was a nightmare and a complete reversal of their constitutional mandates of safeguarding the territorial integrity of the country and the protection of lives and property.”
He alleged that there were incontrovertible evidences that the security agencies worked for the APC against the interest of Rivers people.
He further alleged that the security agencies followed the directives of the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and that of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State during the mega rally of the APC.
He said, “There is no gainsaying that the rerun elections in Rivers State were not a contest between political parties. It was majorly a contest that pitted the PDP against the Army, the Police, the INEC, the APC, and the Federal Government of Nigeria represented by the Honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and others.”
However, the leadership of the APC has described the allegations of the PDP as unfounded and expected.
The ruling party advised the PDP to seek legal redress if it lacked the courage to accept defeat.
Deputy National Chairman of the party, Mr. Segun Oni, said this in response to the allegations of rigging levelled by the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the PDP against the APC.
Oni said, “We have won; they have lost, simple. Whatever they now want to make out of it, we should allow them. You cannot beat a child and prevent that child from crying.
“So, anybody who loses an election will naturally look for space to tell his own side of the story, allow them.
“The system provides very clear steps to be taken for anyone who is not satisfied with an election result. We cannot prevent them from saying what they are saying.
“They lost and you don’t expect them not to say what they are saying. The election has been won and lost, if anyone has any complaint there are procedures to be followed to seek redress. They can go to court.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers-West, Osinachukwu Ideozu, the winner of the election in the senatorial district.
The Returning Officer for the senatorial district, Prof Raphael Echebiri, announced that Ideozu got 107,166 votes to defeat his opponent from the All Progressives Congress, Otelemaba Amachree, who polled 46,898 votes.
There was, however, widespread jubilation among PDP supporters as the news of Ideozu victory broke.
The State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, who spoke at the Government House on Monday, commended the people of the state for standing up in defence of democracy and the interest of Rivers State.
Meanwhile, in the results declared earlier, the APC candidate in the Rivers South-East senatorial election, Magnus Abe, polled 125,938 to defeat PDP’s Olaka Wogu, who scored 25,394.
But the PDP candidate in the Rivers-East senatorial district election, George Sekibo, scored 93,098 to defeat his closest rival, Andrew Uchendu of the APC, who polled 34,193.
The PDP also retained the Rivers-West senatorial district seat as its candidate, Osinachukwu Ideozu, scored 107,166 to defeat the APC candidate, Otelemaba Amachree, who garnered 46,898.
SOURCE.. PUNCH
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