THE All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the Saturday, March 9 governorship poll in Delta State.
The party hinged its plea on alleged brigandage, ballot papers snatching, vote-buying and other electoral infringements on the day of the election.
Although the announcement of the remaining results was still ongoing, with about five local governments to go, the Delta APC said it has rejected the results so far announced.
The results have shown from 18 local government areas already announced that candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and incumbent governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, is coasting home victory having won 17.
The party’s state Chairman, Prophet Jones Erue, in a statement made available to journalists on Monday morning, alleged that the Saturday polls had claimed three lives, describing it as the worst in recent times.
He alleged that PDP thugs, in spite of the ubiquitous presence of gun-wielding soldiers and other security agents during the exercise, were armed with weapons to perpetrate violence, especially the snatching of ballot papers and result sheets in APC strongholds.
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Erue further alleged that in Delta North, South and Central, PDP thugs were aided by security agents to cart away ballot boxes at the polling units and collation centres.
“The object of their gory adventure was to tilt the election results in favour of the PDP. This unpatriotic and satanic objective was indeed achieved but not without exposing their unabashed criminality to grab power so they can subject Deltans to another four years of exploitation and crude pillage of our collective patrimony.
“Indeed the disparity between the INEC card readers and records of accreditation and the votes being declared at the Collation Centers across the state exposed their crass breach of the electoral process and villainous infringement of the law, since the INEC Chairman, Prof Yakubu had stated that where there are more voters than the number recorded by the card readers, the results in that area shall be annulled.
“Delta APC condemns and rejects in totality the result of the governorship election held in Delta State on Saturday, March 9, 2019 and call on the INEC Chairman to instantly annul the result and to re-conduct same in the nearest date possible in line with extant laws and with all necessary logistics put in place to ensure a free and fair election.
“INEC has already demonstrated its preparedness to apply drastic measures where there is a clear breach of the electoral process through its suspension of the Rivers State election and we urge the electoral umpire to apply same rule in the case of Delta to further underscore its consistency, commitment and determination to conduct a free and fair elections in all States in Nigeria,” he enthused.