Plateau Senatorial poll: PDP’s Gotom expresses disappointment over delay in announcing result

The senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Plateau Central, Ambassador Golkuna Gotum, has expressed disappointment that eight weeks after the senatorial election for the district was conducted, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to release the result.

Ambassador Gotum told journalists in Jos, Plateau State, that the delay in addressing the issues surrounding the election is creating tension in the senatorial district and advised INEC to send its verification team to the zone to look into the gray areas.

According to him, it is wrong to continue to keep people in suspense when it is obvious that the election took place and people voted as expected and as enshrined in the Electoral Act.

His words: “The release of the election result shouldn’t have lasted this long. I am surprised that the election will take place in eight weeks without a declaration. I never expected this to happen in the history of Nigeria. The people of Plateau Central did not bargain for this.

“We complain of three fundamental issues: the issue of mutilated results, simple computation errors, and finally the issue of over voting. We expected INEC to have sorted things out by now. In this case, we are appealing to INEC to just wake up and do the needful; we are expecting equality, justice, and fairness in this case.

“In Pankshin in particular, a coalition of results has not been done yet because there are complaints on the ground. We expect INEC to call all the agents and stakeholders and verify this issue. Gardi is not our area of complaint alone. There were over voting in 13 federal wards. Another complaint is the military men leaving their areas of jurisdiction in Wase to Kanam; we are surprised.”

He pointed out that the Electoral Act has the answers to the issues on the ground and should be deployed to address the situation, adding that it was extremely wrong to address the matter outside the confines of the Act.

“The Election Act” should be brought to the fore in this context. Let there be verification by INEC; verify areas of dispute in terms of errors in computation, voting, and mutilation of results. 

“Our case is not the issue of a rerun; the condition for a rerun is not attainable in this context.” We are waiting for the verification officer from INEC to sort things out. Kanam has a forum and a place for the fictitious results, so there is a need for sanity and to help those craving good governance” he said.

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