Taraba guber: INEC declares Ishaku winner

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship elec­tion in Taraba State, Mr. Darius Ishaku, has been declared winner.
In the supplementary election held in 10 local government areas yester­day, the PDP polled 52,120 votes, while APC candidate, Senator Aisha Alhassan, got 13,598 votes. These, added to their previous scores of 317,198 votes (PDP) and 226,386 (APC), the total ag­gregate scores of each party now stands at 369,318 votes and 275,987 respectively.

Declaring the winner, the Returning Officer, Prof. Kyari Muhammed, Vice Chancellor of Modibbo Ad­ama University of Technol­ogy, Yola, said, “the election was duly conducted and that Darius Dickson of the PDP, having satisfied the require­ments of the law is hereby declared winner.”
Meanwhile the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) agent, Abubakar Umar, has rejected the outcome of the governorship election by refusing to sign the result sheets, alleging some irreg­ularities and vowed that his party (APC) would approach the Tribunal to retrieve its “stolen mandate.”
Also the candidate of the APC, Senator A’isha Alhas­san, has rejected the result of the poll.
Addressing a world press conference at the Unity Hall in Jalingo, the state capi­tal, she said the combined governorship election in the state were characterised by massive rigging, ballot box snatching and abuse of card readers in many parts of the state by the PDP and its al­lies.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
Aisha rejected the results ascribed to Wukari, Donga, Takum, Sardauna, Zing, Yor­ro, Ardo-Kola and Lau local government areas, saying that they did not reflect the true results of the election in those areas.
“In all these areas, our agents, supporters and other well meaning voters were shot at, beaten up, intimi­dated and chased away from voting centres, while voting and collation took place in residences of PDP stalwarts and top government func­tionaries,” she alleged.
The APC governorship candidate expressed sur­prise that INEC went ahead to make its declaration de­spite her party’s protestation that the first segment of the election was characterised by irregularities, adding that she had no confidence in the Resident Electoral Commis­sioner in the state, Ahmed Makama, for ignoring her party’s complaints over mas­sive electoral fraud espe­cially in the Southern part of Taraba.
“I shall be heading to the Governorship Election Tribunal to seek redress on my stolen mandate. Darius Ishaku did not win the elec­tion. That is why I will never call to congratulate him. He and the PDP know that he did not win the election,” she said.