By Kateng Daniel, Jos
An aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency bye-election, Hon. Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande has petitioned the Chairman of the Appeal Committee of APC over alleged manipulation and cancellation of his votes during the party primaries in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
Hon. Kwande, in a petition addressed to the Chairman of the Appeal Committee APC National Secretariat and made available to our reporter in Jos want the party to declare him winner of the party primary election based on the votes scored by him.
He explained that despite the forces at the corridor of power that pressurized him to step aside for a government candidate, he went into the poll and worn with a clear margin.
The petition read, “you may recall an Electoral Committee was sent to Plateau State precisely, Jos to conduct Jos North, Bassa Federal Constituency bye-election primary election.
“The election held on the 1st and 2nd February, 2022 at Lamond hotel peaceful. It is on record that I scored 349 votes against 344 votes scored by one Hon. Abey Joseph Aku who emerged second at the time of computation of individual scores.
“Surprisingly, 4 out of my votes were deliberately and mischievously declared invalid which made me to also emerge as the winner with 345 votes. After the conclusion of the computation of the result while we were waiting for the chairman of the panel to announce the result, we were surprised that he declared the election inconclusive.
“I strongly believe that I won the election and we promptly protested and requested for a recount of the votes which the Chairman of the committee refused but held on to the document and later demanded that we had to pay for the recount.”
Kwande said he insisted that the vote should be recounted which was objected by the Chairman who went ahead to declare the election inconclusive.
“The declaration of the election as inconclusive by the Chairman of the electoral committee was indeed a gross abuse of the democratic principle, the Rule of Law and indeed a robbery of my victory.
“I humbly and most peacefully urge you to promptly investigate my complaint and return my mandate by declaring me the winner of the bye-primary election.” he stated.
