Mr David Umbugadu, the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded election in Nasarawa State has given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seven days to declare him winner of the election.
Umbugadu through his counsel, Mr
Michael Numa (SAN) in a letter addressed to INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja said he is acting within the Electoral Act of 2022.
According to Numa, collation of results in some wards and pulling units during the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections were characterised with alteration, manipulation and subversion of the will of the voters.
“Particularly, after the collation of Polling Unit (PU) results comprising the Gayam and Chiroma wards, the total number of accredited voters of Gayam ward is 13,825 while that of Chiroma ward is 21,125.
“The sum total of valid votes cast in Gayam and Chiroma wards are 13,525 and 20,542, respectively, as can be seen clearly from the BVAS report and the Forms EC8A respectively uploaded on the INEC IReV portal.
“We humbly wish to note that all the duplicate copies from the respective PUs were duly issued to all the party agents and security personnel present at the PUs.
“Surprisingly, instead of some local government collation officers and the State Returning Officer to use the authentic data, “they went ahead to collate an inflated, and altered results figures in forms EC8B and EC8C, and declared the election in favor of All Progressive Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate.
“By so doing they truncated the obvious victory of our client, Umbugadu as the winner of the said election.
“We therefore, urge the INEC Chairman, to use his good office to accordingly review and reverse the improper decision of the Returning Officer in declaring the election within 7days in favour of our client as prescribed by law,” Numa submitted.
Umbugadu’s counsel alleged that the total scores for APC after the alterations in form EC8B alongside the scores of other political parties has an inflated total of 29,857.
He further alleged that in Gayam registration area, PUs result figures were also manipulated and altered on the form EC8B.
He added that collation was done at the Lafia Local Government Collation Center against the step by step procedure of entering of polls contrary to Section 70 of the Electoral Acts.
“It is pertinent to state that elections are won and lost at the polling units, and the returning officer lacks the vires to discountenance the PUs results at Local Government Collation level.
“Furthermore, we noted that, in Awe LGA, the actual collated result from PUs is 23041 for the APC while for the PDP is 9185 meanwhile in the final collation in form EC8D the score of APC is inflated to 26966 while that of PDP is deflated to 8025.
“We humbly wish to note that, while collation was ongoing at the Lafia LGA Collation Center, the PDP agents raised alarm to both the LGA collation Officer and also to the State Returning Officer on the happenings on the ongoing alterations and manipulations of form EC8B and C both orally and in writing.
“But, all to no avail as the Returning Officer and the REC in their separate responses to our client’s agents’ observation say they cannot verify and or review the results during collation except by the Commission’s headquarters while insisting on the collation,” Namu said.