The Gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove PDP and APC from the Gubernatorial race over their roles in the despoliation of the electoral process in the state.
Ardo then urged the electoral umpire to conduct fresh election between the candidates of the remaining political parties.
He noted that the guvernorship election and the rerun polls were marred by monumental electoral heists perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In a statement he forwarded to this medium, Monday, Ardo who described the state guvernorship election as “a naked dance of shame” said the process lacked the needed credibility to confer legitimacy on PDP and APC having worked assiduously to compromise the process for self serving purposes.
“As evidence to our earlier description of the situation, the Adamawa state governorship election was a “naked dance of shame in the market place”. The current imbroglio is testimony to that.
“Based on various irregularities perpetrated by the PDP and APC candidates during the two sets of governorship election in Adamawa state, the untoward desperations and actions of the PDP and APC candidates, in addition to the excessive vote-buyings observed; the unlawful declaration of the APC candidate by the Adamawa REC and her instant acceptance speech, both of which proved the existence of an unholy close coalition of the two as revealed in our press conference of Wednesday 15th March; the ensuing total confusion created by the two candidates in the election exercises, INEC and the security agencies in the state, all have combined to make a mess of the ensuing fallout in the election results, thereby eroding the credibility and therefore the acceptability of the entire election results in the state.
“By extension, it will also threaten the credibility of our national electoral process and the integrity of INEC itself as an electoral umpire.
“These are clear illustrations of expensive electoral jokes getting out of hand, capable of marring the entire 2023 national elections if drastic action is not taken by INEC to arrest the situation. To this end, therefore, because of the unedifying roles played by the PDP and APC candidates in discrediting the elections and the electoral process as a whole and in bringing to disrepute the integrity of the commission, we call upon INEC to consider approaching the Federal High Court to disqualify the two culprit candidates, cancel the entire process and conduct fresh election for the remaining qualified candidates in the governorship contest,” he said.
