By Ene Oshaba
The Labor Party (LP) Senatorial candidate in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ireti Kingibe, has decried plans by the collation officers to upturn her clear landslide victory, adding that there is an ongoing unilateral attempt to cancel the votes from the whole Bwari Area Council and the other area councils.
Ireti disclosed this Monday in Abuja while briefing media, saying that there was no over voting in Bwari Area Council as alleged and wondering why the result was cancelled.
Recall that Ireti had called on her supporters to keep calm over the delay in the announcement of election results, stating that the margin is too high for manipulation.
She further stated that the delay in the announcement of the FCT Senatorial election is as a result of violence recorded during the election.
She therfore moved to complain at the collation center that a mistake in the tabulation should not affect the victory of a candidate.
“I’ve been told that the person that was writing the figure made a mistake whether knowingly or unknowingly, that the person put two plus two equals to five.
“And the judges said over voting. The Electoral Officer (EO) said it is an error from the person that wrote the results whether he did it on purpose or accidentally.
“All the results sheets show there was no over voting in any of the polling units. So, why cancel the result of the entire area council? We have watched them.
“They’ve been looking for a reason to cancel all our strongholds and suddenly, they found an error and that can’t stand.
“They said it is not their job to look at the results sheets on over voting. We have had enough. They said we should go to the polls, they want to impose people on us, it will not work. The way this country is going, we’ve had enough,” Ireti lamented before moving to the collaboration centre.
Speaking on the development, a campaign coordinator for Ireti Kingibe, Hon. Danladi Zuru, who spoke to this reporter via phone call maintained that the LP candidate defeated her opponents overwhelmingly and that is why they are trying to cancel the election.
Zuru expressed worry saying they suspect that the FCT Senatorial collation Officer Prof. Sani Sakka, is being bought over by the APC and PDP candidates to cancel the election without considering the what is stipulated in the electoral act in such scenario.
“We smell a rat, there is a conspiracy to gang up so that the LP will mot win . They said there is over-voting in Usuma ward in Bwari area council, why the attempt to cancel the whole election in the other area councils?
“We tried to communicate with Prof. Sakka but he is not picking his call because they wanted to try this in Karu but it didn’t work out , but we are hoping that they don’t cancel the election because it may lead to much trouble.
“This is a bad signal to our democracy, people in positions should know that they are called to serve the nation not to destroy it. Right now the results are inconclusive and we are working to ensure that the right thing is done ,” he said.
“They are doing this because our candidate is a woman and not an indigene but the laws allows non indegenes to contest. Cancelling zhe entire result is unlawful and not within his power to carry such decision.
“Independent domestic observers and party agents of Labour Party were sent out of the proceedings at the FCT senatorial district collation centre at Government secondary school Garki this is not right,” he said.