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The candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic party (PDP) in\nSaturday\u2019s Kogi governorship election, Musa Wada, has described the results so\nfar released by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a sham.
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\nHe rejected the results saying it did not reflect the wishes of the\npeople who willingly cast their votes for him.
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\nHe urged all lovers of democracy to join hands with the PDP in the\ncondemnation of the entire process.
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\nWhile addressing journalists in Lokoja on Sunday flanked by his\nrunning mate, Sam Aro, Mr. Wada decried what he tagged as the \u201cmilitarization\nof the election\u201d alleging that security agents colluded with the APC to harass\nand intimidate voters.
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\nHe said the whole exercise was a daylight robbery as results were\nwritten everywhere for the APC.
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\n\u201cIt is better for the government not to in the first place conduct the\nelection when it knows it will not reflect the wishes of the people,\u201d he said.
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\nMr. Wada also accused the Commissioner of Police of relocating to\nDekina collation center to influence the elections in favor of the APC.
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\nMr. Wada won nine of the 19 local government areas declared so far,\nscoring a total of 168, 144votes as against the APC candidate and governor of\nthe state, Yahaya Bello, who scored 375,083 votes across 10 states.
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\nAlso the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Natasha Akpoti, has\ncalled for the outright cancellation of the election, saying it was a \u201ccivil\nwar\u201d imposed on the Kogi people by Mr. Bello.
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\nShe said violence and thuggery inflicted on the people on election day\nshould not be allowed to go without a penalty.
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\nShe said the results were a product of massive rigging.
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\nMrs. Akpoti scored a total vote of 8539 votes from the 19 local\ngovernment areas declared so far.
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\nThe candidate of the PDP in the Kogi West senatorial seat, Dino Melaye,\nalso shared the view of the SDP, calling on INEC to cancel the election,
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\nWhile reacting to the outcome of the election, Mr. Melaye said he was\nsurprised that INEC was busy declaring election which saw people dead and\nviolence unleashed on the party.
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\nHe said the elections should be cancelled as they were heavily rigged.
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\nAlthough the results of two local government areas were yet to be\ndeclared, it is obvious that Mr. Bello is in a clear lead and most likely to\nemerge the winner.
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\nThe elections across the state were largely marked by violence, ballot\nbox snatching, and vote-buying which left at least four persons dead.
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\nMany observers, including PREMIUM TIMES reported the extent of\nviolence and vote-buying that characterized the elections.
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\nAt least two observer groups, YIAGA and Situation Room, have called\nfor the outright cancellation of the election.
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\nBut the National Commissioner for Voter Education, Media and\nPublicity, Festus Okoye, said the issue of cancellation of the results was\nbeyond INEC, saying only the collation and return officers had the powers to\nmake any pronouncement on the election.
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\nHe told Channels Television on Sunday that the commission did what it\nwas required to do by law, and other stakeholders were required to play their\nroles to ensure a peaceful election.
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\nThe APC, which is set to win the Kogi governorship election, has\nhowever commended the process and the security operatives for their efforts.\nThe party accused the PDP of trying to instigate violence when it knew it could\nnot win the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic party (PDP) in Saturday\u2019s Kogi governorship election, Musa Wada, has described the results so far released by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a sham. He rejected the results saying it did not reflect the wishes of the people who willingly cast their votes for him. He urged all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[14,10],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n