Bauchi governor, APC to challenge Bala’s win in court

Governor Mohammad Abubakar of Bauchi State and his party will challenge the outcome of the March 9 and 23 governorship elections in court.

All Progressives Congress (APC) governor had earlier conceded defeat and congratulated the governor-elect, Sen. Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), few minutes after he was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 26.

Abubakar announced his decision to rescind his earlier concession of defeat to his supporters at his campaign office in Bauchi Wednesday evening when he returned to the state after weeks of consultations in Abuja with the presidency and the party leadership.

He said: “As a loyal and obedient party member, I went to Abuja and met with the national chairman of the APC, the vice president and the president. Each of them said that the APC would file a suit in court to challenge the election results of Bauchi.”

Similarly, APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yekini Nabena, has faulted PDP’s victory in the recent governorship rerun polls in Bauchi, Sokoto, Adamawa states.

Nabena told reporters that the rerun polls were not conducted in line with the rules of INEC.

He was optimistic that his party would reclaim the seats through the tribunals.

But his predecessor, Timi Frank, has saluted the courage of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi and Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa for fighting hard to defend the mandate of the people.

Frank stated that the opposition PDP fought a good fight throughout the country “despite the evil marriage and conspiracy of the APC government with security agencies and the electoral body to turn Nigeria to a one-party state.”

He said the APC “has now lost popularity in all the states of the federation, struggled to rig where it won and eventually becomes a regional party, having lost massively in Southeast and the Southsouth zones.

“I makee bold to say that the APC in Nigeria of today can never win a free, fair and credible election at all levels.”

According to the former APC spokesman, the flood of petitions to electoral petition tribunals across the states is an evidence of a badly conducted election in the history of Nigeria under the APC government.

While calling on the PDP supporters to remain calm, Frank assured that the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, would reclaim, through the court of law, the mandate freely given to them during the presidential election.