Benue State: PDP Rejects Presidential/ National Assembly Elections Results

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the results of the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections held in Benue state on February 25th, 2023.

The party said the exercise was a nullity as it was characterized by irregularities and gross breaches of the electoral law.

The acting chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Benue state, Mr. Isaac Mfo, stated this during a press briefing at the party’s secretariat in Makurdi, the state capital.

“Our great party calls for the cancellation of the results returned from some local government areas and has duly forwarded a Letter of Protest to INEC to that effect,” said Mfo.

He also said the PDP would challenge the outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections before the tribunal.

“We have equally mandated our Legal Department to approach the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal and the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal both sitting in Makurdi to challenge the results of the elections in those local government areas as returned and announced by INEC.

“It is our considered opinion as a political party and a critical stakeholder in Nigeria’s democratic process that provisions of the Electoral Act (2022 As Amended) in Sections 60 (5) and 148 which empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make guidelines for the conduct of the elections were grossly violated.”

He said the party plans to hold a stakeholders’ meeting with the INEC to deliberate on the issues that played out in the last elections before the March 11 governorship elections.

Mr. Mfom accused the INEC of complicity in the alleged electoral fraud that took place last week:

“In this regard, we consider it a matter of grave concern that Clauses 38 and 93 of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Election, 2022, which make mandatory the transmission of election results electronically from the polling units to the INEC Server were serially flouted.”

He assured that the PDP would not boycott the governorship elections despite the lack of confidence in the electoral umpire but noted, however, that his party would no longer give the All Progressives Congress (APC) any breathing space again to avoid a repeat of what happened in the last round of elections.

It would be recalled that the People’s Democratic Party had, shortly after the presidential and National Assembly elections, issued a statement to the effect that it had mandated its Legal Department to study reports received from its agents, who had been deployed to the over 5,000 polling units across the state for the elections.

The PDP State Acting Chairman insisted that after due consideration of the findings of the Legal Department, it was the position of the PDP that the process of conducting both the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Benue State did not conform with the standards stipulated in the enabling laws for the exercise.

“The above identified breaches of extant laws and raised a fundamental issue of non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, a situation which impinges negatively on the credibility of the election,” he said.

The party chairman also raised alarm over a sudden upsurge in attacks on rural communities by bandits and expressed concerns that the trend, if not checked, may result to low turnout of voters during the governorship and State Assembly elections slated for 11th March, 2023.

He said the renewed attacks were targeted at rural communities across Benue state, particularly in Kwande, Logo, Guma, Gwer-West and Agatu local government areas by the herdsmen, which have resulted in loss of lives, destruction of properties including farms and consequent displacement of people from their lands.

“Those attacks, if not halted by security forces, will further worsen the problem of low voters’ turnout at the coming governorship and State Assembly elections slated to hold on 11th March, 2023 across the state,” he stressed.

He called on the Federal Government to rise up to its responsibility by deploying security agents to protect the lives and properties of Benue people and avert further skirmishes.

The PDP chairman also dispelled the rumour on the Social Media in the last 24 hours, alleging that the governorship candidate of the PDP in Benue state, Engr. Titus Tyoapine Uba, had stepped down from the race for the March 11th, 2023 gubernatorial election.

Edited by Amaka E. Nliam