By Abdallah el-Kurebe, Editor
#TrackNigeria: The Sokoto state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has decried the alleged rejection of the results of the recent rerun governorship election, describing it as a ‘winning hallucination’.
This is contained in a statement issued by the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Abdullahi Yusuf Hausawa and made available to Newsdiaryonline Tuesday.
Read the full statement
You are all living witness of the harassment and intimidation of our supporters and sympathizers throughout the period of re-run election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which the outcomes give victory to our party, Peoples Democratic Party’s and its candidate, Rt. Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, CFR, Mutawallen Sakkwato.
We wish to express our gratitude to Allah (SWT) on the victory bestowed on us with a margin of 342 votes. We want to put it on record that a candidate will be regarded as duly elected into the Office of Governor of the State where he has the highest number of votes cast at the election Thus the constitution is explicit about the winner of the election, quoting Section 179 (2) of the constitution.
Even though we have won the election based on the first result announced by the INEC during the 9th March, 2019 gubernatorial election, the opposition insisted that INEC must declare the elections inconclusive, we take solace and accept it as the will of Allah.
With the declaration of the election as inconclusive as a favour to the opposition APC, the party use the period to garner the support of neighboring states and source over five billion naira through the treasuries of two states of Zamfara and Kebbi as well as some selected Federal Government Agencies. These monies were used to facilitate the vote buying spree of up to thirty thousand naira and a bag of rice per vote, which is unprecedented in the history of elections not only in Sokoto state but in the whole country.
The vote buying phenomenon created and started by the APC, a party claiming to be fighting corruption further testified to the fact that the APC and its government is aiding and abetting corruption up to the grassroots level.
The unsubstantiated outright rigging by PDP as claimed by the opposition APC, the question here is who rigged who? With the massive deployment of ten units of Mobile Police from Niger, Kebbi, Zamfara, Lagos states and FCT, and in addition to about 250 DSS Personals in favour of APC, in order to harass, intimidate and instill fear in the minds of peaceful and good people of Sokoto state thre is no way our party can even attempt to rig an election in which we have confidence that by the will of Allah, the victory is ours.
This is not withstanding hiring of political thugs from the neighbouring states of Kebbi and Zamfara, publicly brandishing their dangerous weapons to endanger the lives of the innocent voters in Kebbe, Tambuwal, Rabah, Tureta and Goronyo Local Governments.
With the PDP and its candidate’s victory, the ‘ALU PHENOMINON’ has finally been demystified and given final befitting burial by the people of Sokoto State. Therefore, the right thing for the opposition to do is to simply accept defeat and find a way of settling their paymasters by telling them the truth that no amount of money and no degree of intimidation can make good people of Sokoto state to change their loyalty to Mutawalle, his government and his political associates.
As democrat and advocate of free, fair and credible elections, and believers of justice, the opposition APC should note what Napoleon Hill once said that; “When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goals.”
Finally, we want extend our appreciation to Sakkwatawa, ‘Na Shehu don gaskiya aka san ku.’ for their prayers, love, perseverance, and support shown to our party and Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, CFR, Mutawallen Sakkwato.
Signed By
ABDULLAHI YUSUF HAUSAWA
Publicity Secretary,
Peoples Democratic Party,
Sokoto State Chapter
