Kaduna council polls: Middle Belt group rejects results announced by KADSIECOM

The Middle Belt Forum, Kaduna State chapter, has rejected in its entirety the results of the council elections held on Saturday, October 19, as announced by the KADSIECOM chairperson, Hajiya Hajara Mohammed.

A statement issued by its state chairman, Luka Binniyat, pleaded with Gov. Uba Sani, who has the final say in the matter, to critically appraise Saturday’s election and take a positive, courageous position in a manner that would strengthen democracy in the state and increase the love, trust, and hope that the citizens have for him.

Binniyat said, “We plead with the Kaduna State House of Assembly to amend the KAD-SIECOM law to include heavy fines and jail terms for electoral offenses, especially for officials handling electoral matters.

“If not, it is our firm position that what was read by Hajia Hajara Mohammed, KAD-SIECOM Chairman, if not an Artificial Intelligence (AI) manipulation, stands as an annoying charade; an insult to the collective intelligence of our people and a big leap into backwardness in Kaduna State.”

He called on Governor Uba Sani to realize the particularity of Kaduna State, as a place that is highly advanced, hugely cosmopolitan, and sadly volatile and sensitive to such matters, saying that as the father of the state, he should do the needful and make an urgent intervention.

According to him, “It is possible for the APC to win all the 23 LGAs of Kaduna State, but it must do so under the rules of the game in a manner that we can, in good conscience, congratulate it and extend our hands of cooperation and work with the winners for a better Kaduna State.”

He alleged that from all that they have gathered from the field on Saturday, elections did not hold in the overwhelming 12 LGAs of the Middle Belt in Kaduna State, adding that election materials arrived late and came without results sheets, and the electorates, suspicious of an untoward game, refused to vote.

Since the election did not hold, he believed there was no way that results would have been announced to declare winners at the ward levels (councillors) and at the Local Government Headquarters (chairmen) as mandated in the KAD-SIECOM law, part VI, Section 23 (1) and (2), believing that no such results were declared anywhere in the 12 LGAs of the Middle Belt zone of the state, otherwise known as Southern Kaduna.

The chairman lamented, “We have viewed documents on social media purported to be KAD-SIECOM results sheets, apportioning votes to candidates of political parties, when clearly no such results were collated at the polls.

“It will therefore be very unfortunate and a huge minus to the integrity and trust that Governor Uba Sani has built among us if he allows the announcement of Hajia Hajara Mohammed to stand as the real results of yesterday’s supposed local government election.

“We understand that it has become a very sick and sad fad for governors to emasculate all positions of chairmen and councilors during local government elections to APC 100%.

“No one knows the implications of such injustice on even the perpetrators in the future, even as it is a huge injury to democracy and a mockery of civilization.”