A large crowd of aggrieved youths and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have declared a seven-day protest in Nasarawa state over alleged manipulation of the result of the governorship election held in the state.
The protesters under the auspices of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Stakeholders in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State on Friday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review the results of the election and demanded the immediate removal of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).
According to the party leadership in Karu, the governorship and House of Assembly elections were conducted unfairly by INEC.
The protesters with placards with inscriptions such as: “#INEC We Say No To Manipulations; #INEC Keep Your Promise; International Communities Save Our Country Our Leaders Are Compromised; Protect Us From Manipulators; We Need Our Nation To Be Cleansed From Injustice And Manipulation; The Will And Rights Of The People Must Be Respected,” also expressed displeasure with the outcome of the results.
Declaring the commencement of the seven days protest in its Karu Office, the leader of the group, Comr Chindo Allahyayi, urged the Commission to return the mandate of the people.
According to him, “We are embarking on seven days of protest to let the whole state and nation know that our candidate is the winner.
“Therefore, we are calling on the attention of INEC to immediately reverse its decision, to immediately return our candidate winner.
“We are calling to go back to the IReV portal to check all the results in all the polling units in the 13 LGA of Nasarawa State so that they will see in clear terms that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate David Ombugadu won the March 18 governorship in Nasarawa State.
“We condemned in strong terms the rigging of the election because it will not give us healthy society,” Allahyayi said
On his part, the public relations officer of the Coalition for Ombugadu Campaign, urged the Commission to reverse and review itself.
Recall that INEC had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gov. Abdullahi Sule, as the winner of governorship election in Nasarawa State.
INEC state collation officer and returning officer, Prof Ishaya Tanko, made the declaration on Monday in Lafia at the Nasarawa State Collation Centre.