Kano PDP Rejects Supplementary Poll, Alleges Grave Irregularities

 

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Kano State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the ongoing supplementary elections in the state while calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately call off the exercise.

Kano State Chairman of the party Engineer Rabiu Sulieman Bichi disclosed this on Saturday, during a press conference of the party which was addressed at the residence of the party’s leader, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

”What we have in Kano is nothing but a sham,” he stated adding that from the reports reaching them in the past 24 hours, thugs affiliated to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Kano State Government have taken over all the 208 polling units in the state.

According to him, the thugs were imported from Kastina, Kaduna, Plateau and other neighboring states, adding that they were armed to the teeth while posing as members of the electorates of those localities.

Bichi said that they freely voted with PVCs that do not belong to them, while alleging that their agents were denied access and driven away from the polling units across the state.

“We have reports that some of our agents have been killed, vehicles burnt, property destroyed in Doguwa, Nassarawa, Minjibiri, Dala and Tudun Wada Local elections,” he stated.

“Some have sustained various degrees of injuries, including the elected members representing Gwale Local Government at Guru Ward in Rimin Gado Local Government,” he added.

The chairman, who was accompanied to the press conference by the governorship candidate of the party, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, also alleged that in some instance security agencies meant to secure the process gave cover to the thugs as they unleashed mayhem against the members of the PDP.

He said that in the light of these and other infractions, “We have lost faith in the whole exercise and call on INEC to cancel the election.”

In his reaction, however, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas Sanusi, blasted the opposition for peddling what he considered to be falsehoods.

He called on INEC not to call off the poll on the grounds that the accusations leveled by the PDP against the process were unfounded.

The chairman expressed surprise that the PDP was calling for the cancellation of the poll when the exercise was still going, even as he dismissed claims that they imported thugs into the state to undermine the process.

He called on the people of the state to remain calm and await the final results of the election.

Alhaji Abbas told the opposition that Gama area belongs to the APC, adding that both Deputy Governor Yusuf Gwanna and the former Governor of the state, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, are all from Gama area and its neighborhood.

Kano State Commissioner of Information Mallam Mohammed Garba, who said that he was also attacked by rival thugs, disclosed that nobody was prevented from exercising his civic responsibility during the supplementary poll.