The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has gone to court for legal redress over alleged election malpractices in Zamfara State bye-election for Bakura Constituency in the House of Assembly.
Chairman, Publicity Committee of the party, Ibrahim Muhammad Birnin Magaji, who disclosed this, yesterday, said that the party filed the suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Inspector-General of Police over what it considered as deliberate negligence of their constitutional duties during and after the election.
Birni Magaji alleged that the police and INEC connived to work in favour of the ruling party that was subsequently returned as winner despite gross irregularities at the election.
He said the APC participated in the first leg of the election, which was declared inconclusive, but the INEC despite all the security lapses working against the APC went ahead and conducted the re-run election only four days after the Saturday’s elections.
“There was evidently no satisfactory provision of security and that was what informed the decision of the APC to opt out of last Wednesday’s supplementary election knowing full well that justice and fair-play will not be allowed during the election,” he said.
The chairman, who noted that two PDP members were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Sokoto Command, in possession of large chunk of money and clothing materials intended for bribing voters to illegally influence voting pattern, said the APC after sensing danger of violence, decided not to participate in the supplementary election to save lives that might be lost in the election.
He said that the APC had enough evidence to support its claim of mass rigging, vote-buying, intimidation and ballot box snatching that characterised the election in the court.
