Mr Ayuba Gufwen, PDP chairmanship candidate for Mangu in the Oct. 10 local government polls in Plateau, has called on PDP supporters to boycott the re-run election slated for Thursday, Oct. 18.
The Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), declared that the election was inconclusive in the area following alleged violence in two polling.
The electoral body had said that the two units – Fomulam in Kerang and Kantoma in Mangu-Halle – had a combined total of 2,000 votes.
The Chairman of the commission, Mr Fabian Ntung, had announced in Jos on Tuesday that the rerun election would be held in the two areas on Thursday so as to complete the process and declare the results.
Reacting to the development, Gufwen, in a press statement he personally signed, described the said rerun as “illegal and fraudulent”.
“As a democrat, I cannot be part of such illegality. I have consulted with my party and supporters and we have collectively resolved not to participate in the illegal exercise planned by PLASIEC so as not to give legitimacy to this travesty of justice.
“We hereby call on all our supporters to shun the re-run by PLASIEC. We also want them to remain calm and be law abiding until the right thing is done and the real result announced in our favour,” Gyfwen said in the statement made available to NAN on Wednesday in Mangu. ’
Gufwen claimed that he won the poll by scoring 60,806 votes against the 55221 votes polled by his APC rival.
“The difference is a massive 5,585 votes. PLASIEC cannot bury that result,” he declared.
He contended that the two polling units slated for the rerun had a combined votes strength of less than 2,000 which was “far below my 5,585 lead”.
“If PLASIEC is, indeed, an independent body, and not an extension of the APC, it ought to have declared me winner of the election and not scratch everywhere looking for how to doctor results so as to conduct a rerun,” he stated.
The PDP candidate commended Mr Stephen Hirse, a PLASIEC Commissioner, who hailed from Mangu Local Government, for resigning his position in protest against the outcome of the council poll.
He warned PLASIEC against any attempt to “steal” his mandate.
“The mandate of the people cannot be stolen from me; the PLASIEC chairman should tow the path of truth and constitutionality by declaring me winner of the Mangu chairmanship seat. It is as simple as that,” he stated.
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/10/plateau-lg-polls-pdp-candidate-declines-participation-in-mangu-re-run/
