The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately cancel the governorship election held Saturday in Nasarawa State, owing to alleged irregularities.
It also urged INEC to cancel elections in some states affected by similar irregularities that resulted in the defeat of candidates of the party.
In a resolution signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party and released after its meeting, the National Working Committee advised its members in state where elections have been re-scheduled to remain calm and work towards winning.
The party frowned at some of its members who have taken up issues against the party since it lost the presidential election. It warned such members to desist from act of violence and instead, channel their grievances to the appropriate quarters as demanded by the party’s constitution.
The document read: “The NWC is determined to firmly resist any attempt whatsoever to subvert the will of the people or tamper with the process with the aim of denying our candidates their well-deserved victory at the polls.
“We therefore, in the strongest possible terms call on INEC and security forces to ensure that the elections in the affected areas are free, fair and credible and that every effort must be made to resist the intimidations and blackmails of clearly obsessed APC with the aim of manipulating the process in their favour.
“On this note, we charge our members, particularly those in states where elections have been rescheduled or declared inconclusive not to despair but remain focused as the NWC will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them until our deserved victory is achieved.
“Already, we have received reports from Nasarawa state where results from a ward collation center in Karu local government where our senatorial candidate was leading with about 8,000 votes was outrightly cancelled by INEC on the ground that the collation officer was unable to reconcile the figures from the ward.
“Instead of ordering the collation officer to properly reconcile and represent the figures, INEC reversed the 6,000 votes lead by our candidate by hurriedly declaring the APC candidate winner with about 2,000 votes.
“This is in clear violation of the Electoral Act, which does not provide for cancellation of results based on unreconciled figures at the collation level. We are aware of similar cases at the national collation center where the INEC Chairman had ordered the returning officers to properly reconcile and represent figures before the announcement of final results.
“We therefore request the immediate cancellation of the results as declared by INEC. This anomaly abounds in several states and across the nation; in Imo, Plateau, Zamfara, Lagos, Abia and so many other states.
“Furthermore, the NWC has noted some divisive comments and statements by certain elements within the party who are being enticed by extraneous factors and other parties to cause disharmony in our ranks.
“While cautioning against such comments, we urge our members with genuine grievances to direct them through the appropriate channels within our party in line with the provisions of the PDP constitution.
“Finally, we reassure all our members that the NWC has put a machinery in place to reengineer and refocus our great party in keeping with our collective determination to consolidate our support base in all states of the federation with a view to regaining power at the center in the next four years since it is obvious that the APC lacks what it takes to effectively lead our dear nation.”
