By: Isaac Shobayo, Jos
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Concerned Support Group in Plateau State has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Idris Maje Wase.
The Chairman of the Group, Engineer Paul Vorngok, told journalists in Jos that the election in the Wase federal constituency of Plateau State, where the deputy speaker was declared winner, was fraught with a lot of malpractice.
Engineer Vorngok explained that there were cases where agents of the opposition party were brutalized, and the returning officer was forced to declare the results in favour of the winner under duress, adding that what transpired could be described as a rape of democracy.
According to him, before the election, the PDP in the state and at the local government level had raised the alarm about the influx of political thugs into the federal constituency, adding that nothing was done by INEC and the security agency.
His words: “The election was an eye sore; we are therefore calling for the cancellation of the result because elections were not held in most places in the federal constituency.” People were not allowed to exercise their franchise in places where elections were purportedly held without BVAS.
“The margin of error is nothing to write home about; over 10 polling units have no result sheets, so there is no need for a declaration.”
We are calling to withdraw a certificate of return issued to Idris Wase. We initially raised alarms before the election, but the authorities concerned did not listen to us. “Another election is coming up on Saturday, and if there is going to be a repeat of such, there wasn’t any need for us to come out to vote.”
Engineer Vorngok, who said the returning officer declared the result under duress, pointed out that the PDP had repeatedly called for the relocation of the coalition centre from the local government secretariat to the INEC office, adding that the Commission did not act on the petition submitted in this regard.
His words: “We have officially called for the removal of the coalition center from the local government secretariat to the INEC office; the best place is INEC, not the local government secretariat.” INEC initially acceded to our request but later reversed itself a few hours before the election. We later realized that it was a ploy to rig the election.
“The election was massively rigged; people in the queue were not allowed to vote.” Figures were allocated to places where there was no election. Hoodlums were moved into the local government in the presence of security men. About 2600 ballot papers were missing and later discovered in Gudus’.
