Peter Okoye, PBA Journalism Mentee
The Labour Party (LP) has stated its readiness to challenge the outcome of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly Elections in court following the challenges that affected the electoral process and collation of the results in some parts of the country.
Labour Party National Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, in a statement on Sunday, claimed that the party recorded high votes in most parts of Northern Nigeria, even when its members were deliberately prevented from voting, chased away violently from polling units, or had ballot papers and boxes destroyed and burnt in some cases.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAccording to Ibrahim, most of LP members were deliberately denied their voting rights through different means across the country, especially in the party’s strongholds.
The LP National Secretary cited Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kano, Yobe and Edo states as places where such acts were grossly committed against the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Umar noted that in some places, both the INEC staff and electoral materials were either not deployed to areas that are known to be strongholds of the Labour Party, or deployed late to frustrate the party supporters who, psychologically got tired of waiting and had to leave the polling units out of fear.
“The delay by INEC to upload and announce results, especially where Labour Party, is already known to have taken lead, is also worrisome and we feel it is deliberate to anger our party and our supporters,” he said.
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He also alleged that intelligence from the fields disclosed that across the Northern states, Labour Party supporters were tactically denied access to their polling units by some officials who connived with others to confuse the electorates by insisting their polling units are elsewhere instead of allowing them to cast their votes, thereby sending them to wrong places.
He added that the deceptive action frustrated the electorates, and reduced the votes polled by Labour Party, which would have been more than doubled if the right things were done.
The LP National Secretary further cautioned INEC to call its polling staff to order and also ensure fairness in line with the electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Umar confirmed that the party would certainly contest the outcome and final result in court.
He however urged the party members and supporters to be calm, and remain law-abiding, as the party is encouraged with their efforts so far. He also admonished the party supporters to mobilise even more for the next round of elections, as the party takes steps to right the wrong meted out to her in the Saturday presidential and National Assembly Elections.
