From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Teejay Yusuf Kogi West Campaign Organization has kicked against the result of the Kogi West Senatorial zone, saying that the collation was characterize by alleged “reckless manipulation”.
The group, which is the campaign organization of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) senatorial candidate, in the zone, Tajudeen Yusuf, said the contest was not in line with democratic principles.
The campaign, in a statement by its Director General, Hassan Salau, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) allegedly allowed several infractions and by-passed the BVAS in the conduct of the poll.
Salau noted that “the most mindless affront to Nigeria’s democracy, barefaced irregularities and reckless manipulations that attended the Kogi West Senatorial elections have resulted into the arbitrary use of figures that do not reflect the wishes of our people as democratically expressed during voting.
“The patterns of over voting in Yagba East were absolutely reckless and in too many places across the senatorial district; while several cases of over voting were cancelled, there was widespread bypassing of BVAS which gave room for further manipulations and conjured figures that yielded very faulty results.
“Aside from recording numbers above that of accredited voters, there was simulated violence in Kotonkarfe local government area solely for the purpose of scaring voters away and results in several areas were not uploaded, contrary to INEC’s published guidelines and the provisions of the Electoral Act.
“INEC’s Electoral Officers allowed major infarctions in the electoral process that led to over-voting; by arbitrarily ensuring a faulty process of bypassing the use of BVAS, multiple voting, with alleged cases of under-aged children doing thumb printing in classrooms occurred and INEC had no sure result to upload because of its personnel’s opaque avoidance of BVAS and lack of transparency.”