TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE ON USURPATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHT OF OFFA LG PEOPLE BY PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP) AND KWARA STATE INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION (KWASIEC). BY SAHEED POPOOLA, APC CHAIRMANSHIP CANDIDATE IN OFFA LOCAL GOVERNMENT RE-RUN ELECTION. Good morning, gentlemen of the press, We are here this morning to alert the whole world to the danger that the brazen electoral brigandage and the insufferable electoral injustice being perpetrated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in this state, working in cahoots with Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) pose to democracy in this country. As you all know, elections into Offa Local Government chairmanship and 12 councillorship seats were conducted last Saturday. This came after the Court of Appeal judgement which ordered a rerun. Elections were conducted in all the 86 units in the Local Government. The elections were peaceful, orderly and without major hitch or hindrance. At the end of the polls, votes were counted, result were announced in all 86 the polling units and results were given to the agents of the political parties having being entered by the presiding officers as attested to by the agents of the political parties. The election result sheets were signed by presiding officers appointed by KWASIEC, the Nigerian Police and all the agents of the political parties present. The counterpart of the original given to our party agents is in our custody. As required by law, our polling agents proceeded with the result to ward collation centre whereat the result from the units were collated at the 12 ward collation centres. These results were entered into the forms provided by KWASIEC and the summaries of the collated result were entered both for the councillors and chairmanship elections. The full results as announced at the units and wards are herein provided: SUMMARISED COUNCILLORSHIP RESULT S/N WARD APC PDP AA TOTAL VOTES CAST 1. BALOGUN 1124 507 1 1632 2. SHAWO SOUTH WEST 1171 361 10 1542 3. SHAWO CENTRAL 1213 568 3 1784 4. SHAWO SOUTH EAST 1300 435 3 1738 5. ESSA A 596 226 2 824 6. ESSA B 644 381 1 1026 7. ESSA C 982 301 2 1285 8. OJOMU NORTH WEST 1289 436 3 1728 9. OJOMU CENTRAL 826 383 2 1211 10. OJOMU CENTRAL B 865 364 1 1230 11. OJOMU SOUTH EAST 1059 365 4 1428 12. IGBOIDUN 268 383 7 658 SUMMARISED CHAIRMANSHIP RESULT S/N WARD APC PDP AA TOTAL VOTES CAST 1. BALOGUN 1192 519 1 1712 2. SHAWO SOUTH WEST 770 283 7 1060 3. SHAWO CENTRAL 1295 672 3 1917 4. SHAWO SOUTH EAST 1019 398 2 1419 5. ESSA A 585 231 2 818 6. ESSA B 485 335 1 821 7. ESSA C 563 227 1 791 8. OJOMU NORTH WEST 1293 436 4 1733 9. OJOMU CENTRAL 637 469 1 1107 10. OJOMU CENTRAL B 836 385 1 1222 11. OJOMU SOUTH EAST 1269 429 4 1702 12. IGBOIDUN 252 392 2 646 TOTAL 11337 4710 39 16086 However, having known its rejection at the poll as expressed by the people through their vote, the PDP from the declared and collated results at the polling units and ward levels in an act unprecedented in the electoral history of the world, in cahoots with KWASIEC refused to allow the result to be finally collated and announced at the local government collation centre. It was discovered that the returning officer, who is statutorily empowered to collate and declare result at the local government collation centre had absconded and no officer of KWASIEC was available to offer explanation for his abscondment. When our people came to report to the chairman of KWASIEC, by name Dr. Hussain Ajidagba, on the abscondment of the Returning officer and his refusal to perform his statutory role as an unbiased umpire, he promised to look into the matter. He later turned 360 degrees to personally announce a cooked up result contrary to the provision of the State Electoral law, which empowers only the local government Returning officer with that mandate. What is more, the total number of votes cast in the election as tabulated above is 16,086 while Dr. Hussein Ajidagba shamefully, declared 56,098 votes by awarding 35,937 to the PDP and 20,161 to the APC Given the final tally from available result sheets (copies of which are available here), our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), won in 11 of the 12 wards and in the local government overall. Our party garnered 11,337 votes to defeat our PDP opponent who got 4,710. What remained was for the electoral officer to announce the result and declare APC winner in Offa. However, shenanigan set in as egregious, confounding and provocative chain of events began to unfold. First, the electoral officer disappeared into thin air. Then the chairman of KWASIEC on Sunday appeared on the state’s radio station in Ilorin, concocted new results which he announced, thereby subverting the electoral will of the people of Offa. By the satanic electoral gymnastics of KWASIEC, PDP’s losing votes of 4,710 had been magically turned to 35,937, making it the winner, while our lawful and winning votes of 11,337 had been magically turned to 20,161, making it a loser. This is totally unacceptable to us. What is unfolding is not particularly strange to us. It is the brigandage and lawlessness the PDP is noted for all over the country since its inception. This evil party is like a cancer ravaging Nigeria’s body politic and eating it inside out. From the Plateau to Rivers and the Governors Forum, it has been a trail of lawlessness, subversion of popular will and utter contempt for rules. This electoral subversion by KWASIEC, to say the least, is reprehensible and shocking. In a democracy, the people are guaranteed the right to vote and to be voted for. This requires that election must be free and fair and every vote must count. Election is not selection – it is not coronation. It is not the monarchical right of an individual to a throne and it is not an oligarchy where few people impose a ruler on the people. It is, however, the clearest expression of the people on who to govern them. The people of Offa Local Government have on Saturday unequivocally decided that Saheed Popoola of the APC is their choice for the chairmanship of Offa Local Government. This choice must be respected and we stand before God and man today and declare that we stand by this choice. The people have given us the mandate to govern Offa Local Government. It is our sacred duty to protect it. We are therefore going to do everything possible within the ambit of the law and our democratic right to retrieve this mandate and exercise it to the benefit of the people of Offa and the glory of God. We shall not rest, we shall not sleep and we shall not tire until the people’s choice is respected and the rightful candidate is sworn in. We, therefore, call on all well-meaning Nigerians, President Goodluck Jonathan, the Inspector General of Police, the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and especially the media to appeal to KWASIEC to halt this injustice and announce the authentic results as obtained from all the collation centres on Saturday in the interest of peace, justice and progress. Thank you.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 18:35:30 +0000
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