A former lawmaker representing Adamawa North, Senator Binta Garba, has alleged that the votes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 governorship election in the North-East State were tampered with.
With a difference of about 31,000 votes between the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Fintiri, and the APC flagbearer, Senator Aishatu Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive.
However, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Senator Garba claimed her party is trailing the PDP because their figures were mutilated.
“Our figures were mutilated because as of Sunday by 6 pm, the issue was Fufore local government. At that time PDP was leading with about 25,000 but when we went to Fufore, PDP had 7,509 there but APC was having 37,000 plus.
“So, when you add 25,000 plus 7,500, you have about 33,000 thereabout. So, at that time, it was 409,909 for APC and PDP had 406,615. I was shocked that it now turned out that APC had 390,000,” Senator Garba said.
She also alleged the INEC official in Fufore local government was forced to declare a result different from the original outcome.
“There was confusion there and they insisted that the man should not declare the result and he was taken from there to the police station and from the police station, he was given another result and I can say it vividly, we saw it, we knew who were the players,” she added.
According to INEC, Fintiri scored 421,524 votes as against Binani’s 390,275 votes.
The electoral body said elections were not held in 47 wards, affecting 69 polling units and leaving a margin of 31,249.
It added that the total number of PVCs collected in places where elections were not held amounted to 37,016.
INEC has already fixed the supplementary governorship election in Adamawa for Saturday, April 15, 2023.