…Says election wasn’t inconclusive
From Gyang Bere, Jos
Plateau Central Senatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Amb. Golkuna Gotum has cried out to the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and Plateau State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Oliver Tersoo Agundu to prevail on the Returning Officer of Plateau Central Senatorial election to declare the correct result in his possession and issue him a certificate of return.
He alleged that there were mutilation of election results, wrong computing and allocation of votes to the APC candidate and none usage of BVAS in some electoral wards in Kanam Local Government Areas during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections and called for outright cancellation of results from the respective polling units in line with the Electoral Act.
Gotum, who disclosed this during a press briefing in Jos on Wednesday night and rejected the idea that the Plateau Central Senatorial election was inconclusive and insisted on INEC prevailing on the Returning Officer to work in accordance with the guidelines of the Electoral Act.
“With the result available, I won the Senatorial election for Plateau Central with a very wide margin, I expected a declaration of results within three days but it has lingered for close to two weeks. I want t tell the good people of Plateau Central to wake up for justice, equity and fairness because an injustice to one is an injustice to the entire zone.
“it of you voted me for good governance but what we have seen is a total denial of the seat and I am asking INEC to you their position to do the needful because, at the collation centre in Pankshin, three basic issues were raised.
“Sadly, the issues up to this moment have not been attended to; I expect the INEC body to stand up to it responsibility and do a formal declaration of the result so that I will have my certificate of return. When you look at Plateau, the sitting Governor lost the Southern Senatorial zone to the PDP and the party won Plateau North. This shows that Plateau is a PDP state, I won the Plateau Central with a very wide margin.”
Gotum lamented that Plateau Central Senatorial election has always been rigged in Kanam Local Government Area since 1999 where election results are usually delayed deliberately for results to come from other local government areas to enable them to adjust the figures to their advantage and vowed that such practice must stop with the last election.
“The Electoral Act in Section 64 subsection 7 stipulated that if the disputed results were collated and discovered to be of mass errors, such result should be corrected to produce a new result and that falls under the power of the EO but in our own case, we petition the Returning Officer and he has not called us to look into the discrepancy with those figures.
“Nigeria is not a lawless country, I demand the cancellation of all the results in the disputed areas, I am not asking for illegal votes, I am asking for the legal votes cast by all the good people of the central zone such as widows, the women and the aged persons.
“We have raised three basic issues which include, casting or computation errors, mutilation of results, and total overvoting in our petition where we listed areas such as Kukyen, Gagdi, Dangi, Jarmai, Kanam, Kantana, Gargar and other areas in question.” He stated.
Gotum called on Prof Yakubu and Dr Agundu to intervene in the matter and ensure that the right thing is done to avoid any unforeseen situation as he vowed to remain peaceful throughout the process.