APC goes to court over Zamfara bye-election

The Zamfara State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress has taken the Independent Electoral Commission to court for allegedly violating electoral acts during the just-concluded state Assembly by-election.

Publicity Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji, said this at a press conference on Thursday.

He said, “INEC has failed to do its responsibility of conducting a free and fair election in the Bakura LG assembly by-election.

“In the beginning, things started on a very good footing but at the end, INEC seemed to have compromise and started operating as another Zamfara State Government agency, doing the bidding of the PDP.”

Ibrahim said when the exercise commenced on December 5, there was large-scale violence in almost all the 114 polling units and nine voting centres to instill fear in the minds of the voters.

“The complicity of the security agencies in the exercise was so glaring that some of their operatives were used in the intimidation, vote-buying, and ballot snatching episode,” Ibrahim said.

He said the APC had written to the INEC to complain about the irregularities seeking the extension of the date for the supplementary election but could not get any response.

“The APC, INEC, and IGP will meet in the court of law to sort out things as per Bakura local government state assembly bye-election election and the supplementary election of 5th and 9th of December, 2020 respectively,” he added.