Nasarawa Tribunal: INEC’s Integrity in Doubt As PDP Queries Votes Allocated to Gov Sule

• The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) faces another litmus test of integrity in the Nasarawa gubernatorial polls
• The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the electoral body counted ghost votes for Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
• The complaints of the PDP emanated from the minority judgment of one of the tribunal's judges, whose statistics differ from that of INEC

Lafia, Nasarawa - The Nasarawa State chapter of the PDP has questioned the votes accrued to Governor Abdullahi Sule of the APC by the INEC.

This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday, October 11, by the public relations officer of the PDP, Hamza Ibrahim.

According to the statement, the PDP said it is not opposed to the incumbent's decision to appeal the tribunal's verdict.

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However, the PDP said it needs explanations on how the electoral body arrived at the votes allocated to Governor Sule.

The statement reads:

"...It is crucial to clarify the reasons behind this appeal, especially concerning the alleged discrepancy in the vote count.

"Whereas AA Sule celebrated and accepted the declaration by INEC that he won the Nasarawa governorship election with 347,209 votes, he is now banking on the minority judgment of the Election Petitions Tribunal, which gave him 295,402 votes as the basis for his appeal.”

PDP raises alarm over discrepancies in vote allocation

As contained in the statement, the PDP recalled how the electoral body claimed that the incumbent won the March 18 governorship election with 347,209 votes and allocated 283,016 votes to Dr Ombugadu of the PDP.

The statement added that the minority ruling by Justice Ibrahim Mashi stated that Governor Sule scored "only 295,402 votes as against the inflated votes of 347,209 freely given to him by INEC."

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The PDP said Justice Mashi's verdict also revealed that Ombugadu scored 291,603 as against the suppressed votes of 283,016 allocated to him by INEC.

The PDP asked:

“...Where did INEC get the 51,807 votes margin it generously allocated to AA Sule and returned him as the elected governor of Nasarawa State based on the ruling of the same minority judgment?.”

Nasarawa guber: PDP’s Ombugadu to dethrone monarchs? Tribunal declared “governor-elect”

Meanwhile, Ombugadu, the governor-elect declared by the Nasarawa State Election Petition Tribunal, denied reports that he would sack traditional monarchs.

His response is on the heels of media reports that he is plotting to replace Muslim monarchs with Christians.

Ombugadu reiterated that he is willing and ready with all the monarchs as he urged the media to apply caution and verify their news sources before publishing.

Source: Legit.ng