1st September, 2013
Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded the immediate announcement of the authentic results of Saturday’s rerun in the Offa local government by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC).
In a statement issued in London on Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the cooked results announced by the Kwara PDP on Sunday, in which the party brazenly converted its defeat to victory, are totally unacceptable and will not stand.
It said that according to the authentic results of the elections, which are in possession of KWASIEC as well as security agencies, the APC got 11,526 votes to PDP’s 4,668, as against the cooked figures announced by the PDP in Ilorin, which awarded the PDP 35,937 and the APC 20,161.
APC expressed shock at the antics of the Electoral Officer (EO) of the Offa local government and other KWASIEC officials, who sneaked out of the local government collation centre just when the results were to be announced and have yet to carry out their assigned duties.
”The next thing was that the PDP took the laws into its own hands and announced the cooked results via the state’s radio station Sunday morning. This impunity is condemnable and will be fought to a logical conclusion using the instrumentality of the law..
”There is no iota of doubt that the APC won the elections. It is common knowledge that if the elections were conducted 10 times, APC will beat the PDP 10 times. Offa people know who they voted for and are ready to defend their votes. Therefore, any attempt to thwart the will of the people will be resisted to the hilt.
”Thanks to technology, which has made rigging both unfashionable and untenable, the results of the elections were collated ward by ward and available to all. Even the people successfully challenged the PDP’s plan to rig the polls by ensuring that only 100 of the 500 ballot papers for each polling booth were supplied. The people demanded and got all 500 votes for each of the 86 polling booths, thus making it impossible for the PDP to steal 400 votes from each polling booth,” it said.
While appealing to its members and supporters to remain peaceful, APC warned against any attempt to provoke the people who went out peacefully to elect their councillors and Chairman on Saturday.
”For any government to have legitimacy, it must derive such from the people. But where the will of the people is being wilfully subverted, it can only be an invitation to anarchy, which has now become the hallmark of the PDP. Little wonder the party has now broken up. That is what happens when a party is anti-democratic and recklessly subverts the will of the people.
”Therefore, we demand the immediate announcement of the authentic results and the swearing in of the Chairman, who was elected on the platform of the APC. Nothing else will be acceptable to our party and the people of Offa local government,” the party warned.
Meanwhile, AbdulWaheed Olanipekun of the the PDP has been declared the new chairman of the Offa Local Government Council.
The Chairman of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASICE), Dr Uthman Ajidagba, made the announcement Sunday in Offa, while announcing the result of the elections.
He said that contestants on the platform of the PDP also emerged winners as councillors in all the 12 wards in the Local Government.
Ajidagba said that Olanipekun polled 35,937 votes against the 20,161 votes, polled by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Saheed Popoola.
The KWASIEC boss said that since Olanipekun had satisfied the requirement of the law by having majority of lawful votes, he was therefore, elected and returned as chairman of the council.
He noted that there were reports of attempted violence from some supporters of political parties during collation of results at wards but that the situation was brought under control by law enforcement agents.
Reacting to the outcome of the election, the Kwara State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Masud Adebimpe, expressed gratitude to God for the victory of the party.
He thanked the people of Offa for the maturity they exhibited during the election.
Adebimpe appealed to the populace to cooperate with the new council council chairman for more development to be achieved in Offa.
However, the Protem Chairman of the APC in Kwara, Mr Shola Iji, said that the results declared by the commission were not the original results of the election.
“We are not accepting the result because it was not an honourable result of Saturday’s elections conducted in Offa.
“We know the original result and not the one that was falsified,” he said.