Saraki, Dogara lead protesters to INEC headquarters over Osun poll

Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, led a protest to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Friday.

Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state, are among the protesters who are demanding that INEC declares Ademola Adeleke winner of the Osun governorship election.

Adeleke was candidate of the PDP in the election that was concluded after a rerun.

INEC had declared the poll inconclusive because the number of cancelled votes, 3,498, exceeded the difference between the two leading parties. The margin was 353 votes.

Oyetola was later announced winner of the election after a rerun was conducted in some areas were voting was cancelled.

The protesters who stormed INEC head office on Friday accused the commission and the police of being arms of the federal government.

Secondus said going by the Osun poll, the APC is not ready for 2019 elections.

He said if President Muhammadu Buhari loses in 2019, he would not hand over.

“The right of the citizens to come out and vote has been trampled upon. The entire state, wards and units have been seized by security agencies acting on behalf of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to make sure the election is rigged by all means,” Secondus said while addressing journalists.

“We want to remind our security chiefs that they swore to defend Nigeria and defend and protect our parties.

“Nigeria is a multi-party state, a multi-party nation but what we have witnessed in Osun shows clearly that APC is not ready for election and we are afraid that Buhari will not hand over if he loses the election next year.”