There was drama as the Niger State Independent Electoral Commission on Monday declared that the All Progressives Congress won 23 out of the 25 local government chairmanship seats in the local government election.
This however is as one of the Returning Officers, with the aid of Police, absconded despite collating the results of the election, which was conducted since Saturday.
The Peoples Democratic Party, which won one chairmanship seat, has protested the alleged disappearance of the Returning Officer for Tafa Local Government, saying: “The election won by the PDP cannot be subverted.”
In a statement made available to newsmen, the State PDP Chairman, Barrister Tanko Beji, said: “Ever since then, the people of the LGA numbering in thousands have besieged the Secretariat, for days running, they have slept at the Secretariat for 2 days now and have vowed to remain there till the votes are declared.
“When they (APC) sensed that PDP has won 8 out of the 10 wards in the LGA, a high ranking APC member in collaboration with the police highjacked the Returning officer from the venue of the result collation at the LGA secretariat in Sabon Wuse.”
While declaring the results, the Chairman of NSIEC, Alhaji Aminu Baba Alhaji, said the entire chairmanship result for Tafa Council has been cancelled.
While addressing newsmen, Alhaji said the Returning Officer for Tafa had disappeared without announcing the results at the local government as expected.
He said: “We want peace in the local government, especially because of its location.
“Anything there will bring serious implication to the state and the country.
“So we have come to the conclusion that we should cancel the election.
“Tafa Local Government chairmanship election is hereby cancelled.
“A new date will be announced.”
However, the PDP in a protest letter to the NSIEC signed by Beji, asked the commission to direct the Returning Officer to return to Tafa to declare the result.
According to him: “We maintain that election have been won by the PDP and any attempt to change the result will be matched with reaction, the people have spent two nights at the collation Centre already and will remain there if it will take a month to declare the results.
“If the returning officer could not be found, another returning officer should be appointed and made to announce the result which we won successfully.”
Responding to the receipt of the letter from the PDP, the NSIEC chairman said: “There was no collation of results in Tafa.
“And so the party could not have won the election.”
In a similar development, some PDP supporters from Tudun-wada ward in Chanchaga Local Government on besieged the NSIEC office, protesting the non-release of the councillorship election for the area, claiming their party (PDP) won.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions calling on NSIEC to declare their candidate the winner of the election.
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