PDP Rejects Katsina State Governorship Election Results

By Akinwale Kasali

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the results of the Governorship Election in Katsina State declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

At a Press Briefing in Katsina, the PDP said it would head to the court to challenge the result.

The Director General of PDP Campaign Council in the state, Dr. Mustapha Inuwa revealed the position of the party saying that the election was neither credible, nor free and fair and did not reflect the position of the electorates.

In attendance at the press conference, among others were – the party’s Governorship candidate during the election, Senator Yakubu Lado, Chairman of the Campaign Council, Senator Ibrahim Tsauri and other party leaders in the state.

Inuwa declared on behalf of the party: “We reject the result of last Saturday’s Governorship election in totality.The election was characterised by violence, financial inducement, intimidation of Civil Servants and many other malpractices.

“We are heading for court to challenge the result. It is really sad that instead of allowing the elctorates to freely elect their leaders, cases of malpractices, including intimidation of civil servants, financial inducement, thuggery and other acts of violence were employed to twist the electorates’ choice.

“I know by the grace of God we are going to win,” Inuwa enthused.

He also observed that despite the low turnout of voters during the Governorship election, compared to the turnout recorded during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the results of the Governorship election showed that the APC scored almost twice what it scored in the previous Presidential election in the State, stressing:  “They added only few thousand figures to our party that came first in the Presidential election, to show that they are not smart at all.”

Inuwa appealed to the party members and followers in the State to remain law abiding and continue to support the party.

In his own remark, the PDP governorship candidate also declared that he was rejecting the election result.

He said, “The election was characterised by several malpractices which we will cite at the court. I reject it totally.”

Other political parties that participated in the governorship election in Katsina state were yet to formally react to the result, as at Monday.

INEC Retuning Officer for the election, Professor Muazu Abubakar Gusau, had declared Dikko Rada of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the duly elected Governor made after all the commission’s Collation Officers in the 34 Local Government Areas of the state had declared results of the election in their respective councils.

According to Gusau, Radda polled 859,892 to emerge as the winner, Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke of the PDP polled 486,260 and Nura Khalid, of New Nigeria Peoples’ Party, NNPP,  polled 8, 263 at the March 18th, 2023 Governorship and State House of Assembly Election held in 28 States across the Federation.