From Esther Akaa, Lafia
A coalition of support groups for David Ombugadu, has commenced a 7-day peaceful protest in Karu Local Government Area ( LGA) of Nasarawa state to what they allege as the rigging of the governorship election in the state.
The Voice reports that Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC ) was returned as winner of the election after defeating the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, David Umbugadu, by a margin of 64,193.
Speaking on Friday in Karu LGA, the Convener of the group, Mr Isaac Owoicho, said the protest which will go on for seven days non-stop is against the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who declared Governor Sule as the winner of the election held in the state on March 18 which according to him was won overwhelming by Ombugadu.
He said the action of INEC has deprived the electorates of their will, intentions and aspirations will invariably affect generations of unborn children negatively whom according to him will be born into a society of bad governance and injustice.
“Our grievances is one, the deprivation of our principal from been declared as the winner of the election because to the best of our knowledge and based on our collation and statistics, PDP won the election clearly.
“So INEC hijacked our mandate and gave it to the wrong person. So we are asking INEC through these peaceful protests to give us back our mandate because that is the only way through which we can believe there is a nation,” he said.
Also speaking, Co-covener of the group,Mr Job Daniel, said the protest is aimed at exposing the irregularities that marred the election in the hope that INEC will revisit the outcome of the election and make corrections where mistakes where made.
“We are confident that the declaration on Monday, March 20th declaring Governor Abdullahi Sule as the winner of the 2023 Governorship election in Nasarawa state was an arrangement, a conspiracy and unacceptable to the people of Nasarawa state.
“We are going to be here for the next seven days to register our grievances to the world and to the people of Nasarawa state and Nigeria that we are not satisfied with the declaration of Governor Sule as winner of this year election,” he added.
On his part, PDP stakeholder in Karu LGA, Mr Chindo Allahyayi, assured that the protest will be peaceful and organised so as to prevent hoodlums from taking advantage of the situation to cause mayhem in the area.
He therefore called on INEC to take action over the alleged injustice done to the PDP Governorship candidate by visiting the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal to extract the results uploaded on the portal inorder and do the needful.
The Voice reports that since the declaration of Governor Sule as the winner of the election, supporters of the PDP’s candidate in different parts of the state are demanding for the declaration of Ombugadu as the authentic winner of the election.
