Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku on Sunday accused the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission of colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state to subvert the will of the people in the just-concluded local government elections.
Speaking at his country home in Akwanga while reacting to the conduct of the election, Maku lamented that the presiding and returning officers chose to disappear from the polling centres that PDP clearly won without announcing the results, in contravention of the provisions of the Electoral Law.
“The rest of the story is that where the electoral materials went and the election was conducted, clearly where they see that the PDP is winning, they will just instruct the presiding officers and returning officers to run away from the collation centres”, Maku alleged.
“If you go to Lafia Local Government, people are still sitting with materials in the various wards. The people to come and collect the results are not there; the presiding officers are not there. The same thing has happened in virtually many of the local governments; the returning officers will run away because the result is not favourable to the ruling APC in the state”.
Maku said that despite the enthusiasm shown by the people of the state in the election with the large turnout, the electoral commission failed to provide electoral materials on time and in some cases no materials were sent.
“The problem we are having is with the electoral officers, the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission. I don’t know whether ‘independent’ is still worthy to be mentioned here, because the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission has been playing pranks across the state”, he added.
“We are having major problem in the conduct of the election from the commission. In some places electoral materials went late. For example in Toto, in some places in Karu up to this moment I am talking to you, some electoral wards have no materials at all”.
The minister particularly mentioned that just before the conduct of the election in Toto Local Government, the ad hoc staff trained for the exercise were changed with unknown persons suspected to be supporters of the ruling APC. He also decried the manner in which dangerous weapons were freely used in some polling centres to snatch ballot papers or chase away voters.
His words: “There was violence in Toto where people brought out knives and cutlasses and chased away party agents and officials. In one of these instances, the PDP state chairman was manhandled.
“In Masaka and Mararaba, people brought knives, cutlasses and guns and chased away voters in two electoral wards. In Awe Local Government, the ballot papers from the report I got were snatched on arrival so that there was no even question of them being distributed to the various places. So we understand that there has been thumb printing in some places to proclaim results in elections that didn’t take place in Awe Local Government”.
He however talked up PDP’s chances of victory, saying that from available reports, PDP is leading in 10 local governments out of the 13 local government areas where election took place.
Maku said that it is evident that APC could not have won the local government election in Nasarawa State because all politicians of note in the state had returned to the PDP, as APC had virtually collapsed into the PDP with the return of key officials such as Deputy Governor, Damishe Luka; Senator Solomon Ewuga, two members of the House Representatives; and other notable personalities to the PDP.
Adding that the PDP controls the State Assembly with 19 out of the 24 members, he reminded the electoral officials that for democracy to take root in the country, the process of free and fair election must be grounded at the grassroots.
