The Peoples Democratic Party’s Candidate in the Esan North-east Local Council By-Election, Mr. John Yakubu, has expressed fears that the way the election was conducted sets bad precedence for the 2015 election.
Mr. Yakubu, while speaking on Sunrise Daily, said that the process of declaring the results, which he claimed was held outside the local council, was unlawful.
“Section 45(4) of the State’s Electoral Act reads: The presiding officer shall give a copy of the statement of result to the security officer at the station where votes are counted and the paid+ party agents and take the original copy thereof to the ward returning officer at the ward collating centre together with the ballot boxes, the relevant envelop and other election material including stamp, stamp pad and ink.
“The result of the election shall thereafter be announced by the ward returning officer at the ward collating centre,” Mr Yakubu said, reading from a copy of the Act.
He pointed out that the result of the election was declared by the Chairman of Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC, in Benin, the state capital, contrary to the stipulations of the Act.
The Candidate of the PDP, who pulled 3,314 votes, as announced by the EDSIEC chairman, alleged that while the chairman was announcing the election results in Benin, results were still being collated in the councils.
“The chairman of EDSIEC, Mr. Solomon Ogoh, does not have any business with announcing the result,” he insisted.
“The process was cued to ensure that APC was favoured in the Esan North-east Local Government.”
He pointed out that the Electoral officers absconded from the locations that were chosen for collation of results.
A Big Danger
“When the electoral officers that conducted the elections in the different wards got to the collation centre, there was no one there. All the offices were locked. Having such sensitive materials, they decided to take it to the police station and report the development,” he said, countering claims that the PDP imported Police from Lagos and Abuja to make the electoral process cumbersome.
Mr Yakubu, who lost to the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chairmanship candidate, Mr Sam Oboh, said that the PDP would contend the election results.
“The election is a big danger to 2015 if the result is allowed to stand.
“The biggest threat to Nigerian electoral process played out in Edo State Council Election. It makes one begin to ask whether Nigeria is moving or not,” he said.
Mr Yakubu also pointed out that when APC sent in its candidate’s name, the other merging parties did not sign the paper, an act, he claimed, disqualified the candidate in the first place.