Peoples Democratic Party has called for the stoppage of the ongoing collation of results by Independent National Electoral Commission until data from smart card reader accreditation at polling units are made available to all the parties.

Deputy Director-General, Administration of PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr Tanimu Turaki made the demand on behalf of the party at a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.

He also said that National Chairman of the party, Mr Uche Secondus, had communicated the party’s position to INEC Chairman, Mr Mahmood Yakubu.

Turaki, a former federal minister, said, “We demand immediate and outright cancellation of presidential election results in Yobe, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Borno states as submitted by INEC presiding officers and ask for the conduct of fresh elections in these states.

“In Yobe, the total number of votes submitted as cast was more than the number of accredited voters. Whereas the number of accredited voters was 601,056, the total votes cast was 775,449. This is a clear case of over-voting which, by the provisions of the Electoral Act, renders the election null and void. In such instance, the law provides for another election on a day to be fixed by INEC.

“In Zamfara State, no actual voting took place and there was no single result sheet in any polling unit in the entire state. There was an arrest in Shinkafi Local Government Area, where an APC member was caught thumb-printing ballot papers inside his house.

He added, “Results from the presiding officer from Zamfara were concocted and allocated according to the wishes of the leadership of APC and INEC.

“PDP therefore demands outright deletion of results from Zamfara from INEC records and a conduct of free, fair and credible presidential election in Zamfara State.

“Also in Borno State, there was no election but a figure-writing exercise and allocation of results according to the whims and caprices of APC leaders.”

The party demanded the deletion of the results from Borno from INEC records and a conduct of “free, fair and credible presidential election in Borno State.”

In Nasarawa, PDP also asked for immediate restoration of “our over 157, 000 lawful and valid votes, which were unlawfully and arbitrarily cancelled by INEC and the announcement of the actual results from the field.”

The party also demanded “an immediate restoration of our over 79,000 valid votes which were unlawfully cancelled by INEC in Kogi State and announcement of the authentic results, inclusive of the restored 79,000 votes.

“In the FCT, PDP demands the restoration of 27,000 valid votes unlawfully and arbitrarily cancelled by INEC and a declaration of the authentic result, inclusive of our restored 27,000 votes.

“In Plateau, PDP demands immediate restoration of our over 30,000 lawful and valid votes, which were unlawfully cancelled, particularly in Jos-North and declaration of the genuine results as delivered at the polling units, inclusive of our 30,000 restored votes.”

He called on Nigerians to disregard the results being announced by the commission until the electoral body provided data from the smart card readers, conducted fresh election in Borno, Yobe and Zamfara states as well as “restore our votes in Plateau, FCT, Kogi and Nasarawa states.”

He alleged that some members of the party were arrested and detained by security agencies.

He mentioned Messers Buba Galadima and Emeka Okafor among those he said were illegally detained.

 

Punch