CPC Rejects Adamawa Governorship Election, Calls It ‘Another PDP Manipulation’

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has rejected the declared results of the Adamawa governorship election, but says it considers the option of seeking judicial redress to be futile.
The results returned Murtala Nyako of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the office he lost on January 27 when the Supreme Court ruled that the tenure of office of five governors, of which he was one, ended in May 2011.


In last week’s election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said Mr. Nyako won 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of the local government areas in the state, thereby fulfilling the constitutional requirements.  He beat Markus Gundiri, the Action Congress of Nigeria candidate, to second place, while Buba Marwa of the CPC, a former a former military administrator and presidential aspirant, seemed to lack traction statewide, losing even in his home local government of Michika.
In a press statement signed by the CPC’s National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, the party dismissed the election as having fallen “far short” of acceptable standard for fairness.
“The ruling People’s Democratic Party PDP, preying on the endemic poverty that its successive 12 years’ of governance of the state had foisted on the people, shamefully embarked on monetary inducement of the voters and law enforcement agents,” the statement said.  “The arrests made were those of the opposing Parties’ agents that openly showed disapproval!”

It noted that in most parts of Gada local government area, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission refused to return the CPC’s agents’ forms, thereby allowing the PDP to substitute with its agents to corrupt the process.
The CPC also pointed out that:
•    In Ganye local government, Martin Babale, a former federal legislator and PDP chieftain, was caught with six ballot boxes for thumb printing in his house; and 
•    In Fufore LG, the administrator used paid urchins to chase away observers and party agents so as to perpetrate the nefarious acts of electoral manipulation.
Stressing that the outcome did not reflect the wishes of the people, the CPC concluded: “The oddity of this electoral outcome is seen in the mismanagement by the PDP administration in the last four years, especially in the naked abuse of executive powers: the pauperized citizenry has been adjudged as electing the same oppressive regime!” (SaharaReporters)