By Muhammad Lawal
The Kebbi State All Progressives Congress (APC) has appealed to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove the Collation/Returning Officer for governorship election in the state, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu.
Alhajl Kabiru Sani-Giant, Chairman, APC Kebbi State Publicity Committee for governorship campaign, while addressing media men in Birnin Kebbi on Sunday, said the call was because of his alliance with a political party.
“As a matter of urgency, we call on the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, to remove the Kebbi State guber election collation/returning officer, Prof. Yusuf Saidu, because of his sentiment and bias in discharging his official responsibility in the last gubernatorial election.
“This will bring sanity to the re-run of the gubernatorial elections because the APC in the state is not comfortable with the collation officer due to his alliance with other political parties.”
He argued that the APC governorship candidate, Dr Nasir Idris, had already won the March 18 election with a wide margin.
He added that their candidate was supposed to be declared winner of the election, “but the collation/returning officer went ahead to declare it inconclusive.”
Sani-Giant, who is also the National Coordinator of Tinubu/Shettima ST7 2023, said that the results from the election showed that APC’s candidate polled 388,258, while his closest rival, PDP candidate, retired Maj.-Gen. Aminu Bande, polled 342,980 votes.
“Going by this result, there is no need to declare the election inconclusive. Our candidate has won straight away, because he is leading with 45,278 votes.
“In some states, candidates were declared winners when the margin was a fraction of that. There is no need for a supplementary election,” he said,
He noted that INEC cancelled election results in some polling units because of over voting and violence, insisting that the law states that any polling unit cancelled due to violence would automatically record zero vote.
“Remember, the PDP candidate’s wife heads a department in INEC. It was also the PDP that triggered violence in some of the polling units because they knew that such polling units are our strongholds.
“I, therefore, urge INEC to immediately declare our candidate as the winner of the election so that the people of Kebbi State will have peace of mind and go about their normal business,” he said. (NAN)
