Kwara State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the judgement of an Election Tribunal, describing it as a slap on the electorate and judicial subversion of people’s mandate.
The Tribunal declared candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Salihu Muhammad Yahaya winner of the election on the ground of inconsistencies in the names on the certificates of the candidate of the APC, Adam Rufai.
Alhaji Folaranmi Aro, State Publicity Secretary, Kwara APC, revealed the intention of the party to appeal the ruling in a statement today.
According to him, “The Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has rejected the judgment of the tribunal which declared candidate of the opposition PDP as winner of the recent Patigi bye-election into the vacant seat in the House of Assembly.
“The judgment was based on the difference between ‘Adam’ and ‘Adama’ on the certificate of the candidate of the APC, even though the PDP never called any witness from the examination body to substantiate its claim that the APC candidate was not the owner of the certificate he tendered for his election.
“The tribunal did not deny that we won the election overwhelmingly. It instead hid under a feeble excuse that the names of our candidate on the two certificates he presented to the electoral body are slightly different from each other to award our mandate to the opposition. It is a sad day for democracy as the judgment is a slap on thousands of the electorates who stood in the sun to make their choice.
“This judgment is a violent attack on the position of the Supreme Court in many established cases where an alphabet was either omitted or added to a candidate’s name. We are definitely going to appeal the judgment because it signals a danger for our democracy and amounted to stealing the mandate of the people. The judgment is a judicial subversion of the mandate of the people.”
