‘Result sheets were missing’ — PDP faults Kaduna LG polls, to challenge results in court

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna says Saturday’s LG elections in the state were a “charade” and “rape of democracy”.

Kaduna state Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM) conducted elections into 23 chairmanship and 255 ward councillorship positions across the state.

Hajara Muhammad, the chairperson of the KADSIECOM, announced that the APC won all 23 chairperson seats in the LGA election.

However, the opposition party condemned the conduct of the election, alleging that result sheets were missing during the poll.

Speaking about the outcome of the polls, Edward Masha, chairman of the PDP in Kaduna, said there were discrepancies due to missing result sheets, which he noted compromised the integrity of the elections.

He said the PDP would challenge the process in court and “seek justice for our people”.

“We were invited by SIECOM to receive sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria, but upon inspection, we discovered that the result sheets were missing,” Masha said.

“This omission compromised the integrity of the elections, and our representatives stood against the impunity.

“The APC has appointed its chairmanship candidates for the poll, knowing fully well that local government elections are the bedrock of democracy.

“Today, they said no – we will appoint chairmen for us like sole administrators by the government.

“We will not accept this charade. We will not accept the killing of democracy. We will challenge this process in court, and we will continue to seek justice for our people.”

Masha also alleged that the result sheets of 2022 were released instead of new ones.

He said the distribution of election materials was uneven and reiterated that the process lacked transparency.

The PDP chairman called on democracy advocates and security agencies to take action and urged the party’s supporters not to lose hope.