Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the
house of representatives, says the decision of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), to cancel the Tafawa Balewa local government
governorship election results in Bauchi state lacks substance and is a clear
departure from the provision of the law.
Speaking during a media briefing
in Bauchi, Dogara said it is absurd that the electoral body would order a
cancellation of the results of an election that was “conducted in a free, fair
and transparent manner”.
He said save for the issue of
computation of the final results which was caused by the “carting away of the
result sheet by agents of the sitting governor”, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar,
who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the exercise was
smooth.
“There was no problem at all in
Tafawa Balewa. The only problem they had was the final collation. If that was
the only problem, one will think that the worse decision that can be taken is
for them to provide the relevant collation sheet to her (collation officer) and
say go and complete the collation and bring it in the proper sheet. But in law,
anybody who is a lawyer knows that the issue of form does not defeat the issue
of substance,” he sad.
“Now, the substance is that there
was a fair, free and credible election, which nobody is challenging. The only
issue is that it wasn’t conveyed in the proper form and that can be cured and
so, as it is, this election has been won and lost, no matter how you look at it
and the PDP, Kauran Bauchi is, by the grace of God, the sitting governor-elect.
“As it is now, there is no
problem, absolutely no problem with the votes from Tafawa Balewa. The chairman
of INEC has told the world that elections begin and end at the unit. If they
had cancelled any result at the level of unit collation or ward collation, it
would have stood cancelled but for there to be peaceful elections, free and
fair as attested to by the local government returning officer, Mrs Dominica
Anosike, for there to be very peaceful, transparent collation of all the
results across the eleven wards in Tafawa Balewa and the only challenge we had
was that the Governor’s thugs and boys
went and invaded the local government collation centre and carted away some
result sheets.
“Thereafter, the returning
officer who collated it on a separate paper, and then wrote a letter, an
explanatory memoranda to the state returning officer and the Resident Electoral
Commissioner to say that this was the situation in which they found themselves
and that was why they had to use another result sheet to do the computation.”
Dogara said that the “thugs” who
invaded the local government collation centre were “identified as agents of the
governor when apprehended” yet the governor will still be made the beneficiary
of the action by cancelling the result in his favour.
“If you look at it carefully, the
thugs that invaded the collation centre in Tafawa Balewa are agents of the
governor, the sitting governor of Bauchi State,” he said
“Their names were read out, it is
not a rumour, they were apprehended by the army, including the vehicle they used
for the operation and they have been handed over to the police.
“Now, if they were acting for a
disclosed principal, which is the governor of Bauchi State, the point is that
in the law of agency which we read and it hasn’t changed, the principal is responsible
for the acts of his agents.
So, if they were acting as agents
of the sitting governor, will the governor now take benefit of the crimes
committed by his agents? That is one big question that INEC must answer.
“Secondly, I want to say that the
chairman of INEC is a citizen of Bauchi State, just like all of us and they say
that charity begins at home. Will he therefore sit down in Abuja and watch or
preside over this brazen rape of the mandate of Bauchi State? Will he sit down
and sleep in peace when he sees that the decision of his own people here in
Bauchi State is being upturned by agents of the agency over which he
superintends? That is the question that Professor Mahmood Yakubu, my namesake,
will have to answer and the people of Bauchi State are watching. We want to see
whether he will cast his vote with the people of Bauchi State or with those who
are seeking to oppress the people of Bauchi State.”
The Speaker also advised the
governor to take the honourable path of conceding the election.
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Serious rape of democracy, did Jonathan did one quarter of this nonsense?, shame to APC God pass you people, remember God is not a respecter of anybody you must surly give account on the last day
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