The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to create a premise to announce Aishatu Binani, its candidate, winner of the state governorship election.
The party which was responding to a statement by APC’s national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, accusing it of attempting to rig the election against the will of the people, dismissed the claim as false and mischievous.
Recall that Morka had in the statement, accused Umaru Fintri, the state governor and candidate of the PDP in the election, of trying to use thugs to manipulate the results.
“We draw urgent attention of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and our security services to massive thuggery, violence, intimidation and undue pressure by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calculated to disrupt final collation and announcement of result of the Governorship election in Adamawa State,” Morka had said.
“Election results show a clear and decisive victory for Senator Aishatu Dahiru (Binani), the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate. Faced with imminent and certain prospect of loss in the election, thugs and political actors led by incumbent Governor, and Candidate of the PDP, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, have unleashed heavily armed thugs to disrupt further collation of result and subvert the will of Adamawa people as expressed at the polls. The Governor is reported to have torn result sheets at the collation centre in a show of unprecedented impunity and executive brigandage.
“We are well aware of the massive pressure on INEC and law enforcement authorities to cave in to the inordinate demands of the PDP to subvert final collation and announcement of result. However, we are supremely confident that INEC and our law enforcement authorities will stand firm and conclude the election process in the State as required by law.
“The result of election in Fufore Local Government Area of the state must not be tampered with as Senator Aishatu Dahiru (Binani) holds a clear, unassailable lead, only awaiting final collation and declaration by INEC.
“Nigeria is on the cusp of a major democratic record with the election and emergence of the first female Governor of a State in the country. We urge all well meaning Nigerians to stand together to protect and uphold this historic victory for women and our country.”
However, responding to the claims by the APC, Hon. Awwal D. Tukur, Director General PDP Presidential & Governorship Campaign Council, said, “Our attention had been drawn to a very deliberate and malicious attempt by the APC Secretariat in Abuja to smear Governor Ahamdu Fintiri, and at the same time create false premise to announce Senator Binani as Governor~elect of Adamawa state.
“The false claim coming from Abuja to our understanding is not only false, mischievous but determined to steal the mandate of the people freely given and obtained by Governor Fintiri. The statement by the APC national secretariat is also lettered with wrong generation of lies to wit:
“That Gov. Fintiri was at the collation centre where he took thugs and tampered with results. This claim is false and to be dispelled as an outright tissue of propaganda, lies and an insult to our collective sense of democratic responsibility. Rather, it was the APC and the INEC that worked out figures in Fufure and insincerely set the agents to change the result to the favour of Binani. The facts are clear, the voice notes of the INEC Adamawa State REC with the Fufore EO captured and readily in circulation by the media and also reported to the security agents is evident.
“It is also a big lie that PDP was or is currently engaged in any electoral malpractice in the state. Instead, it is the APC, at the national level desperately working to entrench and change the results thereby putting pressure on the INEC in Adamawa State to declare results in favour of the losing APC candidate.
“These facts, pictures and further evidences are ready to be given out sooner than expected. Right now around the collation centre, APC thugs are visibly seen holding and wielding weapons to attack and cause mayhem.
“It is on record that from all the election results declared from the twenty local governments declared so far, Governor Ahamdu Umaru Fintiri maintains a clear and comfortable lead. The general public is hereby advised to visit the INEC results portal where all the data for the governorship election in Adamawa has been uploaded already.
“THE ISSUE AT STAKE is the outright disregard for security of which the APC at the National level is inciting in the state. Now that the tension is high and the people are agitated, we expect social responsibility to declare Gov. Fintiri as the rightly elected Governor of Adamawa state. Anything short of that will leave us with no option than taking any necessary action required to claim our mandate in the state.”