While addressing Journalists at the State Secretariat of the PDP on Monday, State Chairman of the party, Hamza Koshe Akuyam alleged that the state government connived with the electoral body and security operatives in perpetrating the electoral malpractice, therefore, describing the exercise as a “mere charade which must not be allowed to hold.”
He further alleged that Bauchi state government perfected a script on the art and science of electoral rigging. This was carefully rehearsed and executed with the active connivance of law enforcement agencies and officials of INEC.”
The PDP chairman also alleged that “vote buying was not only widespread but was conducted in the open. The APC led government in the state openly lured citizens with cash for their votes, which were sold for anything between N100, N200, N500, N1000 and some cases N5000 per vote.”
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“Simply put, the ballot paper became the most sought-after commodity in the senatorial zone. This shameless act was responsible for the low turnout as voters especially women and youth refused to vote until they get paid or settled. In some voting centres, security officials chased away voters and agents even before the voting process and counting were conducted,” he further alleged.
Hamza Akuyam also alleged that Bauchi state government officials colluded with voting clerks and other electoral officers to stash boxes with excess votes only to turn around and cancel the boxes on the dubious card reader excuse of over voting.
He alleged further that, “in Bauchi local government, for instance, 15000 votes were cancelled due to so-called over voting. A card reader developed malfunction after tracking a little over 100 PVCs, the card reader stops working or is topped up by a few votes and will then be seen as over voting as was the case in Birshi and Mun-Munsal where more than 8000 votes were needlessly cancelled.”
While citing other electoral malpractice in four other local government areas, the PDP lamented that “this is the first time in our Democratic history that over 80,000 votes were cancelled in an election where only 256,763 votes were cast. We condemn this charade in strongest terms because it was the hatchet job by INEC and the Bauchi state government to deny PDP victory .”
The PDP also alleged that prior to the by-election, officials of the state government distributed forms to unsuspecting citizens, collected their data including PVC numbers stating that, ” we believe in some areas the PVCs were preloaded in the card readers. This explains the massive number of votes recorded especially in Toro local government in spite of the low turnout.”
It concluded that “we have evidence that card readers were not used in the larger part of Toro local government area. This explains the so-called massive number of votes secured by the APC compared to Bauchi which has more centres and registered voters.”
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