Niger East poll: APC drags Zabgayi, 388 others to tribunal
The All Progressives Congress candidate in the last conducted Senatorial bye-election in Niger East District, David Umaru has sued Dr. Shem Zabgayi of the Peoples Democratic Party and 388 others at the National Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Minna.
The party is praying to be declared as the winner of the bye-election having polled majority votes as against the PDP candidate that was declared winner by INEC.
Umaru and his party in a petition to the tribunal made available to our correspondent pleaded the tribunal to cancel results from no fewer than 378 polling units in the nine local government areas of the bye-election for electoral malpractices and irregularities.
Others named as respondents in the petition included the PDP, INEC, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC and all the presiding officers of the commission that participated in the conduct of the bye-election.
The petitioners are also seeking the order of the tribunal to cancel and deduct the votes scored by all parties in the affected polling units from the final results recorded by INEC to determine the rightful winner of the bye-election.
He said, That if the results of the polling units affected by these non-compliance and irregularities are cancelled and deducted from the total final scores of the candidates, I shall emerge with the highest number of valid Votes cast at the election.
That if the result of the above stated Polling Units that were affected by non-compliance are cancelled and deducted, I shall emerge with the highest number of valid votes cast thus; APC 87405-22491 = 64,914 PDP 92056-53837 = 38,219.
The PDP candidate according to results released by INEC got 92,056 while the APC candidate got 87,406 votes, but David Umaru is asking the tribunal to deduct 22,491 votes from APC results and 53,837 votes from that of PDP in determining the lawful winner of the senatorial bye-election.
The petitioners are also praying the tribunal to declare null and void INEC declaration of Dr. Zabgayi and his party as winner of the senatorial bye-election conducted on August 30 and September 6, 2014 because he did not secure majority of lawful votes and that he was not qualified to contest the election having not been properly sponsored by his party (PDP) in accordance with the Provisions of the Constitution.
According to the petitioners the scores ascribed to each of the candidates as were not the true reflection of the candidates actual scores, rather, the product of deliberate wrong entries and collation of figures made by the 3rd Respondents agents or officers at the polling units.
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Niger East poll: APC drags Zabgayi, 388 others to tribunal