APC disputes outcome as PDP sweeps Bauchi local government elections

The Peoples Democratic Party in Bauchi State has won all the 20 chairmanship seats in the Local Government election conducted on Saturday.

Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission, Ahmed Makama, announced the results in Bauchi on Saturday.

He said that the polls were conducted peacefully across the state, adding. “For the chairmanship election, PDP won all the 20 seats as declared at the local government levels. And for the councillors, the results were declared in the wards with other parties emerging victorious.”

Mr Makama further said that the commission would issue the winners with their certificates of return on Sunday.

The local government election was conducted following the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, which affirmed local government’s autonomy,

The judgment ordered the Federation Account Allocation Committee to withhold LG funds from officials not democratically elected.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress, Bauchi State chapter has rejected the results.

Chairman of the party in the state, Muhammad Hassan, at a news briefing on Saturday, described the election as a “broad-day robbery of franchise and murder of democracy.”

He cited numerous alleged irregularities, including inadequate election materials, withheld sensitive materials and result sheets and votes allocation to the ruling PDP.

Others were the alleged absence of returning officers and the abandonment of election materials at the polling units.

“There were also instances of ballot box snatching, massive thumb printing of ballot papers for PDP and votes allocation to PDP candidates across the local governments,” Mr Hassan alleged.

The state electoral commission, however, insisted that the polls were free and fair.

(NAN)