Delta APC rejects election results

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State has called for the cancellation of last Saturday’s elections.

The chairman, Jones Erie, who addressed reporters yesterday, accused security agents and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of conniving with agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the election in PDP’s favour.

He said: “You all witnessed an electoral process where soldiers aided PDP thugs to hijack ballot boxes and materials in collaboration with the presiding officers and thumb printed them for the PDP.

“Our people were not allowed to enter any collation centre; our agents were treated as enemies of the process. The whole place was militarised against APC and results were changed at will.

“At Emede Ward 5 unit 2, soldiers aided the destruction of that unit. About 10am, ballot boxes and ballot papers were carted away, we managed to complete the election and at the end, APC had 4,323 votes while the PDP had 1,134 votes for the House of Assembly.

“Surprisingly, the same votes were counted and they recorded 2,712 votes for the governorship for the APC and 2,702 for PDP. If this is the discrepancy in my own ward, it is enough prove that the same thing happened across the state.

“Our members were brutalised, presiding officers collaborated with PDP to undo us. In Warri South and Warri South-West, most of the materials did not get to their units.”

Erue said the party would approach the Election Petition Tribunal should the electoral umpire refuse to cancel the election.

But spokesman of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Col. Aminu Iliyasu said the allegations against security agencies were borne out of wrong perception of what the agencies stand for.

He said: “People see security agencies as instruments of the state that can be used by the ruling party. The opposition parties will bash on the security agency, the ruling party will also bash on the security. The election is over, aggrieved persons should approach the Election Petition Tribunal.”