From: Ruth Yarnap Bauchi
The Inter-party Advisory Council, IPAC, Bauchi State Chapter has faulted the results of the local government council election that were declared on Saturday, October 17, 2020,.
Addressing a press conference at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Bauchi recently, Alhaji Usman Isa, flanked by the representatives of other political parties, on the strength of their position, called for the conduct of fresh elections in which all political parties will be given a level playing ground and allow for a sound democratic process.
They also asked the state government to annul the results and declare the seats of the chairmen and Councillors that have been sworn in vacant.
Alhaji Usman Isa stated that the purported local government election in Bauchi State is an irony of democracy as the local government chairmen and councillors who were sworn-in on October 18, 2020, were selected and appointed by the minority rulers.
According to him, “we are living witnesses when we saw democracy being murdered on Saturday 17th October 2020 during the conduct of the local government election in Bauchi state.We remain affixed in quandary when we saw that election did not hold in some wards and local governments of Bauchi State, but results were declared in hideouts in favour of PDP candidates in those wards and local governments.The results and declaration of the winners were published through the social media rather than collation centers”
“Even where elections were held, the results and electoral materials were abandoned in the polling units without collation at designated wards and local government centers.Again, neither collation officers nor Returning officers were seen at the designated wards and local government collation centers”
“Candidates of the APC and other political parties who won the election by the available results from the polling units were not declared as winners, but the PDP candidates who lost in almost every ward and local government were rather returned as winners.The Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission, BASIEC were relegated to the role of a mere observers in the purported election process”.
The chairman appealed to the state government to annul the purported results and declaration of winners of the local government election and declare the seats of the sworn-in chairmen and Councillors vacant and appoint caretaker committees to supervise the local government councils pending further directives.
Also, the IPAC asked the government to refund all the official fees paid to the Commission by other parties candidates including campaign and ancillary expenditure incurred in the election process as well as dissolve the present Board members of BASIEC and replace them with other members comprising of technocrats and nominees from all the political parties with offices in Bauchi State.
