By Chimezie Godfrey
The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has decried the disregard to rule of law and lack of transparency in the conduct of the Adamawa governorship election.
Sen Adolphus Wabara, Acting Chairman, Board of Trustees, PDP, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday made available to Newsdiaryonline.
Wabara condemned the announcement of the supplementary elections results by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, in person of Mr. Hudu Yunusa-Ari, while collation were still ongoing for 10 LGAs.
He said,”With due respect to the Electoral Act 2022 and the INEC guidelines regarding the 2023 electoral process, Nigerians watched in dismay the display of disregard to the rule of law by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State, in person of Mr. Hudu Yunusa-Ari. Accompanied by Security Officials, and without following due process contained in the INEC guidelines and the Electoral Act, the REC took it on himself to assume responsibility for declaring results and hurriedly declared a winner in the Adamawa supplementary elections as results collation were still ongoing for 10 LGAs.
“So far, results from the collated 10 LGAs indicated that the PDP was still in clear lead over the closest contestant. This open disregard for the rule of law is a pointer that the Electoral Commission is compromised from within and Nigerians are expecting INEC to act justly as a neutral entity with respect to the supplementary elections taking place in Adamawa and other states in Nigeria.
“With the plethora of controversies surrounding the general elections so far, we call upon INEC to ensure that the outcome of the supplementary elections is not added to the list of controversial elections conducted by the body.”
The PDP BoT Chair urged members of the party to remain law abiding and calm as they continue to follow developments from the supplementary elections.
“We also call upon members of our great party PDP to remain law abiding and calm as we continue to follow developments from the supplementary elections to ensure that the will of the people of Adamawa state is not thwarted by the few who have no regards for the law.
“We appreciate the media, local and international observers as they continue their jobs in ensuring that we have a Nigeria that is governed by true democratic tenets,” he stated.
