The Minister of National Planning, Dr.
Abubakar Suleiman, on Sunday frowned upon Saturday’s presidential and
National Assembly elections in Kwara State.
Suleiman, who spoke to reporters in
Ilorin, alleged electoral irregularities in the state, saying it was
“an electoral tragedy.”
The Peoples Democratic Party leader in
the state said the accreditation process was faulty, adding that the
card readers did not function in many centres.
The minister added that INEC’s decision
to adopt manual methods in accrediting voters after the card readers
failed created room for irregularities in the elections.
He alleged that the total votes cast in
the three wards at Opobiyi, Ajikobi in Agbaji (Ilorin West Local
Government) was greater than the number of collected Permanent Voters
Cards in the area. Former governor and the APC leader in the state, Dr.
Bukola Saraki, is from the area.
Suleiman alleged that security
personnel were withdrawn during the collation and counting of votes in
the state to create room for the manipulation of the results in favour
of the APC.
“If actually we had got it well in 2011,
what happened in my own community, in my state, was more of an electoral
tragedy, which is not acceptable. To a large extent, it has significant
negative implications for our electoral future – if not addressed.
“I saw a connivance of the security
agencies in Kwara State, to be specific, with the opposition party. It
does not tally with sense, for instance, where you have about 1,800
potential voters to one policeman without any arms. How will he control
the crowd?”
He added, “Many houses were used as
electoral fraud havens by the ruling party in Kwara State to rig the
elections. Where I voted, at Opobiyi, the three polling units were in
the residence of an APC chief. Going by the declared votes, the vote
declared for Mr. President, especially for the opposition, outweighed
the PVCs collected. It is a case of electoral tragedy.”
However, the state Commissioner of
Police, Mr. Salihu Garba, denied withdrawing policemen during counting
of votes in the state, saying the security agencies never defaulted in
their duties.
He said, “The minister’s allegations
against security agencies are unfair. We did not sleep. We were up and
doing. Even right now that I am talking with you, we are on patrol, only
for somebody to say that because of security lapses, somebody had an
advantage over the other. It is very unfair.”
The state APC Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Sulymain Buhari, said Suleiman’s allegations were untrue. He said that
the minister made allegations because he lost in his area.
“The allegations are untrue. We did not
commit any electoral fraud or irregularity. We challenge the minister to
prove his allegations,” Buhari said.
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