~ Says party’s past electoral heists haunting it
The chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State, Barr. A.T Shehu has disclosed that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is mortally afraid of the forthcoming local government election because the electoral heists it perpetrated in the past is haunting it.
Shehu who accused APC of highest electoral malfeasance while in power noted that the party vehemently denied members of his party their deserved electoral victory when it held away as the ruling party in the state.
He noted that unlike the APC, his party has been fair as it has conceded victory in all the areas it lost election.
“When APC was in power, local government election held, PDP participated in the election and won many seats but when the electoral commission announced the results, our candidates were denied victory.
“Four councillors of our party were denied their deserved victory in Mayo Belwa local government as well as others in Lamurde, Numan and Demsa local governments.
“After emerging victorious in the election, these people were forcefully robbed of their mandates by the APC. But in our time the opposite happened as we have conceded victory wherever we lost election.
“When we conducted the last LG polls we conceded victory to the parties who won election. There are opposition political parties that won elections like ADC, and APC and they were given their deserved victories nobody shortchanged them.
“In fact the APC won election in Lamurde local government, a stronghold of PDP and home to the deputy governor and we did not forcefully change the result. We did not deny them victory because the deputy governor was from the area,” he said.
Shehu who was reacting to allegation of massive election rigging against the PDP by the APC in the last local government polls noted that because of the way they rigged election in their time, APC has a mortal fear of going into the election thinking that they will also be rigged.
“We are a law abiding party and we believe in the principles of election and democracy and can never do anything that negates such noble principles,” he said.
He noted that PDP has set up machineries to ensure a hitch free process and to ensure that all aspirants in the party are given level playing ground.
Shehu added that the party is working in tandem with the directives of the state independent electoral commission adding that they had set up timelines to to ensure compliance with the electoral calendar as spelt out by the electoral umpire.
He added that to ensure that women and people living with disability participate in the process, a special arrangement has been made for them.
Shehu said women will be given the nomination forms which goes for N500,000 for free, while men with disability will pay only 30 percent of the fees.
He urged women and people living with disability to capitalize on the opportunity to participate in the process as they have chances of victory considering their numerical size.
The Adamawa State Independent Electoral Commission has released timetable for the conduct of local government election as political parties scramble to participate in the process.
