- APC accuses INEC of unilateral action
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Leading contestants in the Adamawa State governorship race are back to the starting block for popular votes as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Thursday, March 28 to conduct supplementary election in the North East State.
The contest is between Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Hammadu Fintiri, who is leading with a 32,476 vote margin from the first ballot on Saturday, March 9, after polling 367,471 votes and incumbent governor, Jubrilla Bindow of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a tally of 334,995 votes.
But the Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has already rejected the March 28 date, accusing INEC of taking a unilateral decision without the stakeholders’ inputs.
In a notice on its twitter handle, @inecnigeria, on Tuesday, the Electoral umpire said with the restraining Court order vacated, the coast is now clear to conduct the poll re-run.
“Following the discharge of the injunction, which stopped the governorship supplementary election in Adamawa state in the case filed by the Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD), INEC will now conduct the election on Thursday, March 28.
“The poll will hold from 8am to 2pm in 29 Registration Areas (RAs), 44 Polling Units across 14 Local Government Areas (LGAs) with a total number of 40,988 registered voters.”
The INEC had earlier fixed March 23, 2019 as new date of the re-run after declaring March 9 gubernatorial poll inconclusive.
However, an Adamawa State High Court had ordered INEC to stop its conduct of the election in the state pending the determination of a suit brought before it by Eric Thema of the MRDD.
He is complaining about INEC’s omission of MRDD’s logo from the ballot papers used for the first governorship election held on March 9, 2019, stating that it affected his chances in the exercise.
But Justice Abdulaaziz Waziri of the State High Court, Yola on Tuesday lifted the interlocutory injunction restraining INEC from conducting supplementary governorship elections.
Meanwhile, the APC’s Organising Secretary in Adamawa State, Alhaji Ahmed Lawal, said in Yola on Tuesday that the electoral umpire failed to consult the party as a major stakeholder before fixing the new poll’s date.
“INEC failed to consult with political parties involved in this election before going ahead to fix a new date for the re-run.
“We are not afraid of re-run election but INEC should have done the right thing. How can you fix an election on a working day. Are civil servants not going to participate in the election?
“We are going to forward our protest on the matter to INEC”, Lawal said
