From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
On Thursday, a group of women supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) protested against the outcome of the March 18 governorship election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kaduna State, in favor of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The women alleged that INEC was biased towards the government in power, contrary to constitutional and electoral act provisions.
The INEC collation officer in the state, Prof Lawal Sulaiman Bilbis, had declared Uba Sani of the APC the Governor-elect on the evening of March 20. Sani polled 730,002 votes, defeating his closest rival, Mohammed Isah Ashiru of the PDP, who polled 719,196 votes.
In an interview with reporters during the protest at the Secretariat of The Nigerian Union of Journalists in Kaduna, a former Kaduna State PDP Women Leader, Hajiya Hafsat Ibrahim Medina, stated that the party was working on challenging the election result in court while protesting to inform the world about their grievances.
According to Medina, there were “probable infractions in the manually collated data INEC used to declare Sen Uba Sani, the APC candidate, the winner” of the election, as opposed to the results on INEC’s portal. She urged INEC to review the result and act accordingly to “redeem its image within a reasonable time.”
Medina expressed her disappointment with INEC’s performance in conducting free, fair, and credible elections, despite collecting over N300bn in taxpayers’ money to do so. She questioned “the essence of transmitting the results” from the polling units if they were not verifiable and if contested, could not be referred to the server.
Medina accused INEC of being “subjective and serving the purpose of the ruling party”, stating that the party was confident of reclaiming its stolen mandate through all available legal means. She noted that Nigerians have invested so much in democracy and should not be deprived of their right to elect their leaders. The party is currently writing a petition to INEC to review Kaduna’s result as it has the power to do so.
Medina concluded that even if INEC “perverted justice, the whole world would see that the party played its role and followed the constitution as its guide.”