Barnabas Gemade
Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State has rejected the votes declared in favour of Senator Barnabas Gemade of the All progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the Benue Zone ‘A’ Senatorial District election.
Suswan, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, reacted to Gemade’s victory in Makurdi on Tuesday by calling for the cancellation of some wards in places like Logo, Ukum as well as other parts of Konshisha and Vandeikya Local Government Areas of the State.
INEC’s Returning Officer for the zone, Prof. Mohammed Adah, had on Monday night, returned Gemade, an incumbent Senator, as winner of the senatorial election, having polled 140,715 votes.
According to him , Suswam, a sitting PDP governor, scored 118,608 votes to lose in his ambition to occupy the Senate seat.
But the Governor alleged that “irregularities” marred the poll, including alleged use of “armed persons” to harass voters in several wards adding that armed persons attacked electoral officers and confiscated results from them.
He added that some of the results declared in favour of Gemade were “mutilated and inflated figures” that were awarded to his opponent.
Suswam, while addressing journalists, stated that in areas considered to be his stronghold, INEC cancelled the results for reasons he could not comprehend.
He accused the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state, Prof. Istifanus Dafwang, of colluding with his opponent to deny him victory, adding that in spite of assuring all the parties that he would not announce the contested results, Dafwang went ahead to award victory to Gemade without further recourse to his agents.
His words, “I requested that the results be cancelled because the number that voted was more than the number accredited.
“In Ukum, armed persons jumped the results and they were tempered with. I complained to the REC and he said he would look into it.
“In Logo, three wards were cancelled, which was wrong because these were places I would have won,” the Governor added.
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