Taraba LG elections: Thumb printing going on in PDP members homes not polling units- APC
………The APC are terrible losers- Bello
Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Taraba State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC Alhaji Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi has alleged that ballot papers are being thumb printed in the homes of PDP stalwarts in several locations across the state, rather than the polling units, thereby disenfranchising members of the opposition parties.
El-Sudi who made the allegations on Saturday in Jalingo said that reports from across the local government areas especially where the APC is fully involved shows that there is no election going on as what is happening is just a mere charade.
He insisted that the election has exposed the lack of sincerity of the Governor and electoral umpire in the state and the deliberate effort to undermine democracy.
“It has become imperative for me to address you at this time. Ordinarily, local government elections is supposed to be going on across the state and all of us should be busy with that. Unfortunately, electoral materials are taken to homes of political stalwarts for thumb printing. In Ibi, the electoral officers are nowhere to be found since yesterday. I informed the security who said their responsibility is only to safeguard the election materials. I also informed the Chairman of SIEC who assured me that the right thing would be done and yet nothing is happening.
“The situation in other locations such as Zing, Gashaka and other places is the same. Even in Jalingo here, there is no election at all in most of the polling units. This is very unfortunate. We know right from the onset that the governor wanted to appoint Caretaker Committees to run the local governments even after the notice for election was given. Now they just appointed caretaker chairmen in the name of election.
“I am therefore, calling for complete cancellation of the election. This is such a sham and disgrace and so we, as a party, can not be associated with it. We gathered since yesterday that all local governments have already written their results. Today’s development have vindicated our earlier intelligence.
“I also want to very specially call on the INEC to be handling Local Government elections henceforth otherwise, this is an abuse of democracy. We need a referendum as the states Assemblies are already compromised and may never consent to any constitutional amendments to this effect” he said.
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However, reacting to the allegations, the SA to the Governor on media and digital communications Honorable Emmanuel Bello said that the APC is only been a terrible loser.
In a phone conversation with our correspondent, Bello insisted that the state Governor Dr Agbu Kefas gave clear instructions for the election to be done with utmost transparency and has refused to interfere except to support the success of the process.
“I understand that this is politics and in every election, you will expect such reactions from the losers. One would have expected the APC to hold on to the end of the process before tongue lashing at everyone but no, they are aware that they did not do their homework and so are looking for soft landings.
“Well, I can assure you that what is happening at the polls today is a protest against the inhuman treatment matted on the people by the APC government. It is a protest against them. But it is also the people’s way of saying we have passed an overwhelming vote of confidence in our amiable governor who has shown a clear sense of direction that will not only ameliorate our pains, but will set the state on the path of development.
“I am in the field as we speak and the election is going on smoothly. As a matter of fact, I am getting fillers from several locations and so far, the process is commendable. Remember that even national elections, planned by INEC with limitless resources usually have some issues. You can’t have a perfect process and so I can not say that the elections are perfect. But we have a great exercise that we should all be proud of” Bello said.
Efforts to reach spokesperson of the PDP for reactions were not successful as his line was not reachable as at the time of this report.
