Alhaji Isah Ashiru, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Kaduna has rejected the outcome of the election, in which he lost to Gov. Nasir El-Rufai, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying he has substantial evidence showing the election results were manipulated. Ashiru is calling for the outright cancellation of the results, alleging gross irregularities in six local government areas of the state, where card readers were not used, in violation of INEC regulations and guidelines.
Announcing the result on Monday in Kaduna, the State Returning Officer, Prof Muhammed Yahuza Bello said, El-Rufai scored 1,045,427 votes to emerge winner, while Ashiru obtained 814,168 votes. According to Ashiru, reports obtained by his party agents across the state revealed that the elections were marred by a lot of irregularities.
“It is on the basis of these established irregularities that our party in a petition to the state Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC rejected the results and called for its outright cancellation. It is important for you to note that available reports have shown that smart card readers were not used during the elections in a lot of polling units,” he said.
The PDP candidate listed areas affected by the alleged irregularities as Giwa, Birnin Gwari, Kaduna North, Igabi, Zaria, Lere and Ikara Local Government Areas. “It is our firm belief that the non-usage of the card readers which is a violation of the electoral guidelines have rendered the results from these areas invalid. Another issue of concern to our party was the clear militarization of the electoral process in various part of the state,” he said.
Ashiru said the disparity between the number of votes obtained by the APC in the presidential elections and that of the governorship elections was another cause for concern. “How could the people of Kaduna State be convinced the APC will earn more votes during the governorship elections than it got in the presidential elections,” he asked
INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Kaugama Abdullahi confirmed receiving a petition against the outcome of the governorship poll from the PDP, which requested to inspect the election materials used during the poll in the state. He said INEC had already directed its legal department to take all the necessary actions on the petition since the request is within the law.
