The House of Representatives Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for Asa/Ilorin West Federal Constituency, Alhaji Ibrahim Ajia, says he is discontinuing the legal suit he instituted to challenge the outcome of the just concluded National Assembly elections in Kwara State.
Ajia, who recounted the difficulties experienced in filing his petition before the Election Petition Tribunal, alleged collusion between the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the All Progressives Congress, APC, to frustrate the case.
INEC had declared Muktar Shagaya of the APC as the winner of Asa/Ilorin West Federal Constituency seat in the February 25th election.
Ajia, however, said that “there was a diminishing possibility of an impartial legal process with the apparent alleged connivance between the electoral commission and the ruling party.”
He said this in a statement titled “Re: my offer to serve: time to move on”, which was made available to Journalists in Ilorin, state capital.
The PDP candidate noted that he withdrew the petition against the outcome of the polls due to his belief that Almighty Allah gives power to whom he wishes at the appointed time.
Ajia said that though he desired to serve the people effectively, he would not want to create excuses for the APC candidate, who was declared the winner that he failed on account of distraction arising from the legal tussle.
He explained that “his decision to withdraw the petition was not in return for a gain from either the winner or his party but for the sake of God Almighty, the progress of Asa/Ilorin West Federal Constituency and Kwara State.”
“It is unfortunate that the result declared by the INEC was neither the will nor expectations of our people. And in response to the wishes and desires of our people to reclaim the mandate they freely gave to us, we immediately rejected the result and assembled a team of lawyers to review the result and commence necessary legal actions.
“After we briefed our lawyers, they filed an ex-parte motion for an order to compel INEC to allow us access to the electoral materials including the BVAS report. Unfortunately, the panel members were nowhere to be found. It took eight days after we filed our case for the panel to arrive to grant us the ex-parte order.
Despite the delay in granting our order, INEC refused to obey the order, up till this moment. That has limited the capacity of our legal team to present a robust case towards reclaiming our mandate,”Ajia said.
He said; “From the foregoing, we can see clear signs of collusion between INEC, APC and perhaps other authorities we may not know. But to keep the hope of our supporters alive, we filed our case despite many difficulties and challenges our legal team encountered in the process.
“We have had representations and expressions of deep concerns by a lot of people about the apparent connivance between the APC and INEC and how that will impact the legal process. My immediate family has also expressed worries about the diminishing possibility of an impartial legal process and urged me to let it go. More importantly, as a strong believer and a true Muslim, I believe that it is the Almighty Allah that gives Power and to whom he wishes at the appointed time.”
“As a progressive politician, my utmost desire is for our people to be served and represented effectively. I therefore wouldn’t want to create excuses for the purportedly declared winner by INEC that he was distracted by the legal contest when he fails. Also, considering that this is the Holy month of Ramadan, I have deeply reflected on one of the lessons of Ramadan, which is the spirit of forgiveness, and wish to discontinue the legal process we have instituted at the tribunal, against our opponent, APC and INEC,“Ajia stated.
He said; “I want to state, very categorically, that we are doing this not because we are expecting any consideration or gain from our opponent or his party but for the sake of God Almighty, the progress of our Constituency and our State.
“However, we will not be deterred by this temporary setback in pursuing our set goals of making life more meaningful for our people. This we will continue to do through our Foundation and other engagements with various organisations and institutions we have contacts with. We will hold the government at all levels accountable to ensure that our people are not shortchanged in any way.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
