MEMBERS of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State on Thursday held a peaceful protest in the state capital to demand the declaration of their candidate, Isah Ashiru as the rightful winner of the March 18th governorship election held in the state.
On Monday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Uba Sani winner of the poll. While Sani polled a total of 730,002 votes, his closest rival – PDP’s Ashiru – raked in 719,196 votes.
Not satisfied with the outcome, the protesters, mostly women who were dressed in black attire, took their protest to the Kaduna State Secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists. They accused INEC of upturning the victory of their candidate in favour Sani.
Leading the protest was a former Minister of Environment, Laurencia Mallam and a former PDP Women Leader in the state, Aishatu Madina.
They faulted the declaration of the Sani as the winner of the election by INEC, noting that it is not the true reflection of the wishes of the citizens of Kaduna State and what was captured by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.
“Why we are gathered here today is to express and show the world our dismay on the outcome of this Kaduna State election,” she stated.
“Everybody knows that what was declared wasn’t the representation of what the people of Kaduna State voted for. Why we are here is to call the attention of the relevant authorities which is INEC that is supposed to be the umpire of this whole exercise to do the needful and exhibit that trust that Nigerian people have entrusted them with.”
Madina stated that the available data uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) showed that the PDP won the governorship election in Kaduna.
She called on the ruling APC in the state to be peaceful enough and accept the fact that Kaduna people voted for the PDP.
“Why won’t them in peace accept the outcome of this election and give us our mandate? If anybody is asking me if we have the original result, it is verifiable on the INEC server,” she added.
