By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Bauchi State Chapter, has rejected the results of the local government elections conducted and announced by the Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission (BASIEC) on 17th October 2020.
It alleged that false results and winners were announced and therefore called for the annulment of the entire results.
NATIONAL ACCORD had reported that the People’s Democratic Party swept all the 20 local government Chairmanship seats and their deputies.
The PDP also won the Councilorship seats of the 323 Wards.
Speaking at a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat Bauchi on Wednesday, IPAC Chairman, Alhaji Usman Isa, flanked by representatives of other political parties, said all the chairmanship and councillorship seats should be declared vacant and caretaker committees appointed to supervise the councils until fresh elections are conducted.
He said BASIEC Commissioners should be sacked and representatives from each political party should be appointed so that they can conduct fair elections.
Isa said: “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 on 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 the election were held, the results and electoral materials were abandoned in the polling units without collation at designated wards and local government centers.”
The IPAC Chairman also said that 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 wards 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 purported local governments elections of 17th October 2020 in Bauchi state is an irony of democracy as the local government chairmen and councillors who were sworn in on 18th October 2020 were selected and appointed by the minority rulers.
“This in our view, if allowed to continue unabated will sacrifice our democracy and pave way for anarchy,” he declared.
Isa demanded that the official fees paid to the commission by candidates including campaign expenditures should be refunded to the political parties and their candidates.
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