Niger APC rejects INEC decision to halt re-run in Agaie

From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

The Niger State chapter of All Progressive Congress (APC) has rejected the decision of Independent Electoral Commission INEC to reversed the Saturday rerun in the two units of Agaie state assembly just concluded earlier declared inconclusive.
The State APC chairman, Engr. Mohammad Jibrin Imam made the declaration yesterday at a press briefing at the party secretariat in Minna while reacting to the official letter received from INEC dated 21st March, 2019 that declared the PDP candidate Yahaya Abdullahi the winner.
Imam described the action as fraudulent and unacceptable having kept the result for two weeks and after consultations with the INEC headquarter before taken such decision he said could trigger violence across the state called for reversal to go ahead with the rerun as slated.
He explained that the returning officer only announced the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who was leading, added that there was a fowl play by INEC who invited stakeholders for a meeting end up issuing a press statement stated that
According to INEC statement, “Given the fact that a declaration was made by the Returning Officer in Favour of Yahaya Abdullahi of PDP, the declaration stands until it is over turned in the form of judicial intervention”.
It added that “only the court that can determined the circumstances of alleged declaration under duress as claimed by the returning officer hence the slated supplementary poll of two polling units of Jikpangi and Wuna-Dagaci for Saturday 23rd March, 2019 will not hold”.
The APC chairman maintained that the party will surely take an appropriate action at the right time and will immediately write the electoral body on its stands having prepared and confident for winning the scheduled rerun that was aborted just 24 hours to the poll.
He emphasized that INEC is setting a precedence that would not be allowed because of future reoccorrance haven alluded to the fact that there was a gap between the ruling APC and PDP of 106 votes.
Consequently, the All Progressive Congress APC candidate Umar Abdullahi scored 17,920 while the Peoples Democratic Party candidate Hon. Yahaya Abdullahi defeated him with 18,026 votes as announced at the collation centre (INEC office) in Agaie and contained in Form EC 8E (1) result sheet duly signed by relevant people.