The All Progressives Congress, APC, has condemned
the elections conducted in Aguata Local Government Area, describing it as a
sham.
The party accused officers of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, of "systematically" rigging the election
held on Saturday.
Speaking its candidate for the Federal House
of Representatives seat, Aguata Federal Constituency, Mr. Carl Agbaih said he
would not accept the results.
"What we saw or witnessed yesterday in
Aguata was the return to the days of electoral brigandage. Stories of ballot
stuffing, intimidation, connivance by INEC officials, ballot box snatching and
no proper collation of votes became the order of the day.
"It is unfortunate; we are toying with
the future of this country. People are trying hard to destroy this democracy.
"A situation where INEC officials acted
like party members, and refused to do the proper thing such as collation of
results at ward levels but moved the collation centres to a private house. How
do we encourage this?
In Aguata, Saturday's election was marred with
late arrival of voting materials, disenfranchisement of willing voters.
Even in areas where card readers were working
INEC officials refused to use them and began using the manual form of
accreditation which gave room to numerous electoral malpractices.
However Mr. Carl Agbaih said that he would
seek redress in the courts saying
"There
is provision for us to seek redress from the Tribunal to the Appeal Court and we will take full advantage of this,"
he added.
