The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Kaduna State has queried the silence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in responding to a petition submitted by the party.
The petition was submitted following alleged irregularities in the gubernatorial election conducted in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that INEC declared Uba Sani of the APC winner with 730,002 to defeat Isa Ashiru of the PDP who scored 719,196 votes at the March 18 gubernatorial election in Kaduna State.
Felix Hyet, Kaduna State PDP chairman, spoke on Friday while addressing a media briefing at the party’s Secretariat in Kaduna.
Mr Hyet said the party, while it remained law abiding, decided to seek redress through a civilised way.
“Section 82 of the Electoral Law gives us the opportunity to seek redress or review to the National Headquarters through administrative procedure by writing a petition to seek for a review within seven days of election.
“Election took place on the March 18, and on March 20 someone was announced a winner by allocation of votes.
“Unfortunately, they have said nothing and we wonder why?
“Their quietness seems to us as a connivance with the ruling party and the State to subvert justice and deny the people of the state the right to choose a leader,” Mr Hyet said.
The chairman explained further that in the same petition the party submitted to the National headquarters, it made it clear to INEC that Section 82 of the electoral law said that where the margin of victory was less than the total number of canceled votes, the Commission should re-conduct another election.
He, however, insisted that PDP in Kaduna State demanded INEC to make known to the public the authentic result as transmitted by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, for the sake of fairness and justice.
NAN
