Chairman Kebbi state publicity committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Campaign, Alhajl Kabiru Sani Giant, has called for the removal of the collation officer for the state, Professor Yusuf Saidu over alleged bias during the last Governorship and House of Assembly Elections.
He said his removal would bring some level of sanity during the re-run elections, saying his party was not comfortable with him.
Giant made the allegations at a press conference in Birnin Kebbi, a copy of which was made available to Blueprint in Abuja.
He said the APC governorship candidate, Dr. Nasir Idris, won the election and ought to have been declared rather than declaring the exercise inconclusive,
“I urge INEC’s Returning Officer Professor Yusuf Sa’idu who on Monday declared the results to be inconclusive due to what he said was cancellation of polling unit results in 20 of the state’s 21 local governments, should be changed for the next re-run elections” he said.
Giant who is also National Coordinator Tinubu/Shettima ST7 2023, said the results showed the party’s candidate polled 388,258 votes while his closest rival, Major General Aminu Bande [retd] of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), polled 342,980 votes.
“There is no need to declare the election inconclusive. Our candidate won fair and square. He is leading with 45,278 votes. In some states, candidates were declared winners when the margin was a fraction of that. There is no need for a supplementary election.” he said,
“INEC cancelled election results in some polling units because of overvoting and violence. Remember, the PDP candidate’s wife heads a department in INEC. It was also PDP that triggered violence in some of the polling units because they know they are our strongholds” he added.
He said despite all the PDP machinations, “we are still very comfortably ahead. Even if it holds supplementary elections, we are confident of increasing our margin of victory because all the areas where the polls were cancelled are our strongholds.
“I urge INEC to immediately declare our candidate as the winner of the election so that the people of Kebbi State, like those of most other states, will have peace of mind and go about their normal lives,” he said.
The APC also called for the probe of the PDP candidate’s wife for certain roles she allegedly played during the exercise.
They called for the investigation of “Prof Yusuf Saidu who is a close friend to the House of Representatives candidate, Prof Sabi Danladi Mahuta, who lost the election to the APC candidate under Fakai, Danko Wasagu, Zuru and Sakaba Federal Constituency.”
Similarly, the party called on INEC to probe the alleged use of fake election materials by the PDP.
Gian thanked the security agencies, journalists and INEC for the peaceful and successful conduct of the election in the state.
