Bola Badmus- Lagos
Candidates of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just-concluded National Assembly Election have appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to consider their petitions against the collated results in the Lagos West and Lagos Central Senatorial Districts in the state, pointing out that they didn’t lose the election, going by the results obtained by their agents from each of the polling units in their districts.
Otunba Segun Adewale popularly known as Aeroland and Wale Gomez, PDP candidates for Lagos West and Lagos Central senatorial districts respectively said that made the appeal, in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos, saying that the results obtained by their agents from each of the polling units in their districts did not indicate they lost the election.
Adewale, who is also a former Lagos State PDP Chairman, alleged that most of the results were altered at various levels of collations.
According to him, he was coasting home to victory in Alimosho, Agege, Ojo, and Badagry local government areas (LGAs) before the results were allegedly changed through the back door, saying that the party had all the results from various polling units as declared by the polling officials as well as those collated by the party agents.
“We have these results intact. What we discovered was that the results were unnecessarily delayed to give room for manipulation.
“How can we lose an election that we have won convincingly at the polling units?” he queried.
“I, therefore, appeal to the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner to go through our petition. We have sent our petition and he should go through it,” he said.
According to him, all entreaties to collation officers at various levels of collations to fact-check the results with BVAS (Bimodal Voter Accreditation System) proved abortive.
Adewale also alleged that political thugs also disrupted the collation at Ojo LGA where he was also coasting home to victory, saying that the REC should “help us do the right thing.”
“It is sad that BVAS could not save us. I appeal to REC to help us do the right thing. Every result that is contrary to what we have obtained from the polling units is fake,” Adewale said.
Also speaking, Gomez said that it was the right of every Nigerian to have his or her vote counted, alleging compromise by INEC officials.
The PDP standard bearer urged INEC to count real results, declaring that he won massively In Eti-Osa in the just-concluded poll.
“In Eti-Osa, we won massively. We want INEC to count real results,” Gomez said.
Also speaking, Lagos PDP Governorship Candidate, Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran, urged INEC to recall BVAS used for the election, look at them and review results from contentious areas.
Adediran, who described the main opposition PDP as law-abiding, said that the action or otherwise of INEC would determine the next move of the party pertaining to the issues raised.
“We won convincingly, we want INEC to announce these results now,” the PDP guber candidate said.
INEC had collated results and announced winners in most of the federal constituencies and senatorial districts which mostly favoured APC and Labour Party candidates.
