By Armstrong Allahmagani (BAUCHI)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded the immediate redeployment of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Mohammed Nura, for allegations that he connived with the Peoples Democratic Party led government to rig the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
The opposition party in the state said that the call was necessitated by the many irregularities perpetrated by PDP in connivance with INEC across the 20 local government areas of the state.
The State Chairman of the APC, Babayo Misau, made the allegations at a press briefing held at the Next Level Secretariat of the Party in the state on Tuesday.
According to the text of the briefing which was read by the Legal Adviser of the party, Rabiu Garba, the Chairman also alleged that elections were deliberately cancelled in APC strongholds to give an edge to the PDP.
He also alleged that some of the INEC ad-hoc staff trained to conduct the election were replaced with agents of the PDP which gave them the opportunity to manipulate the process.
Misau, who commended INEC for “keeping to its pledge to conduct the exercise as scheduled against all odds and apparent challenges,” further commended all stakeholders in the entire electoral process like the security operatives, civil society organizations, international observer groups, the media and most and “the electorates, who massively voted for our next President (Insha Allah), Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all other candidates of the All Progressives Congress in the just concluded elections.”
He said that the APC has always maintained the firm view of the electorates that elections must be free, fair, credible and in line with the international best practices adding that from the results so far released, “it is obvious that the electorates in Bauchi State have confidence in the APC, which is creating panic in the ruling PDP in the State.”
“However, we must condemn in totality the cunning move made by the PDP Government in Bauchi State to compromise the security and INEC ad-hoc electoral officers in most of the Polling Units across the State. For instance, under the INEC guidelines for the 2023 General Elections, ad-hoc Staff are required to be effectively trained on how to operate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVA) device and to as well preside over elections at polling units.
“We have witnessed in some Local Governments Areas of Bauchi State where the INEC trained ad-hoc staff were replaced with certain card- carrying members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who apparently manipulated the election process in favour of their party.
“Thus, they have, in some Polling Units, illegally cancelled the Elections in APC controlled Polling Units, causing deliberate malfunctioning of the BVAS machines. mutilated sensitive election materials, etc. We strongly condemn the PDP’s interference in that regard and shall take up the matter appropriately.
“It is worthy of note that under a Memorandum of Understanding between INEC and NYSC, all Presiding Officers at Polling Units must compose of Youth Corps members. The corps members earmarked for the exercise in Bauchi State fell short of the number of Polling Units we have in the State.”
According to him, in the NYSC CDS Group, Legal Aid, with over 70 trained corps members for the exercise, only one person was actually engaged, leaving out about 69 pointing out that even the corps members were not enough to fill the required manpower for the elections.
“This is one out of several other cases witnessed across the state. It is obvious that such action is a sinister play between the ruling party PDP and some unpatriotic officials of INEC whose motive is targeted at creating a space that was subsequently filled by card-carrying members of the PDP in flagrant violation of Section 141 of the Electoral Act, 2023 which provides that, under no circumstances should any Electoral Official (ad-hoc) be a member of any political party. It is obvious that the act of replacing the youth corps members with card-carrying members of the PDP has severely affected the transparency with which the exercise was desired to be conducted.
“Further still, we have seen instances where the PDP Government in Bauchi State used its machineries and traditional rulers to threaten the beneficiaries of conditional cash transfer programmes by seizing their Beneficiary Cants until they vote for PDP Candidates against their wishes, otherwise they risk losing their status as beneficiaries. The PDP has also threatened other Federal
“While we condemn such ill-conducts, we call on all beneficiaries of Federal Government people-oriented programmes not to succumb to any such threat as the Bauchi State PDP Government has no say in determining the beneficiaries of such laudable programmes of the peoples’ President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR
“In view of the foregoing, we, as a political party, categorically disapprove of the entire management team of INEC in Bauchi State for fading to insist that the night thing is done at the right time and for failing to resist the PDP Government in Bauchi State. As we all know, there can never be any compromise without the compromise of INEC management in Bauchi State,” he said.
He further added that “we have lost confidence in the management team of INEC in Bauchi State and we unconditionally demand for the immediate redeployment of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bauchi State and the Administrative Secretary of the Commission to ensure transparency and safeguard the sanctity of electoral process.
“We unconditionally demand INEC to immediately disengage all the illegal Presiding Officers and replace them with the genuinely trained National Youth Corps members in line with the terms contained in the said MOU between INEC and NYSC.
“We unconditionally demand that INEC must ensure that all of its ad-hoc staff are sufficiently trained before the next election of March 11th, 2023 to avoid the occurrence of unnecessary and deliberate irregularities capable of undermining the sanctity of the electoral process.”
When contacted to react to the allegations, the Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Adamu Gujungu, said he was not aware of the press briefing held by the APC and therefore, cannot speak on the issues.
The State Chairman of the PDP, Hamza Akuyam, did not pick the calls of our Correspondent. He did not also reply to a text message sent to him on the matter as of the time of filing this report.
