(SINL NIGERIA) The Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate, Senator Rufai Hanga (NNPP, Kano Central) has said the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) rejected the result of by election held in Tsanyawa/ Ghari constituency because electoral officers allegedly cancelled votes in the constituency.
Specifically, the lawmaker said the party will take legal action against the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Senator Hanga made this known to newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.
“They cancelled our votes deliberately in the presence of everybody. Our agents were there when votes were cancelled.
“These people went with a lot of hooligans, thugs, to terrorise people. That is true. The electoral officers refused to listen to reasons.
“What they claim was not true, that we were over-voting. That is why they cancelled the votes. That is why we are rejecting the result.
“We are contesting, we are asking for an investigation which will confirm what I have just said”.
Senator Hanga however stated that the party would take legal action for record purposes, saying that “once you allow election to be announced you are finish”.
“We are doing it just to make the record clear. If we don’t do it, the people there will say, after all nobody care about us. But we need to get, Kano is NNPP” he remarked.
He added that the election was marred by thuggery in some polling units, stressing that thugs were allegedly brought in from neighbouring countries.
“We have learnt what we refused to learn over the years, people employed thugs even from neighbouring countries during elections” Senator Hanga said.
Commenting on the role of Independent National Electoral Commission during the just concluded by election, the deputy minority whip gave INEC below pass mark. “Am not happy with INEC” he said.
According to Hanga, the process of transferring election results from polling units to collation centers and headquarters give room for manipulation, stressing that results should be declared where elections were held but not at the headquarters of the Electoral umpire.
“We stood our ground in Ghari and insisted that Electoral officers should announce the results after the voting process”.
On 2027 general election, the senator representing Kano Central zone, warned “my fear is that the government should tame violence, be careful and allow free and fair election in Nigeria”.
