The spokespersons for the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr Osita Chidoka and the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation, Mr Festus Keyamo have disagreed over the presidential results from the north as released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Both men were at the Collation Centre in Abuja, where figures from all states regarding the presidential elections are being collated.

While expressing worries at the figures released by the commission from some northern states, Chidoka of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked the INEC boss, Professor Yakubu Mahmood, to provide details of the accreditation of voters captured by card readers in the general elections.

“The issue before us Mr. Chairman is that we will appreciate, and we feel very strongly about this and the PDP Chairman (Mr. Uche Secondus) has written you a letter. We are worried that the promise you made and the commitment INEC made that as we are carrying out this collation of results, that you will project the details of the accreditations captured by your card readers in the country.

“On Monday, our colleague raised the issue and we thought that when we come in this morning as we were listening to the states, we will be seeing the accreditation by states and by your card readers.

In reaction to Chidoka’s comments, Keyamo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said the PDP spokesman’s request goes contrary to Clauses 32 and 35 of INEC’s regulations.

“I just want to react to what my colleague of the PDP said. My simple reaction is that what we are doing here is guided by law and the regulations of INEC.

“In the regulations of INEC, if one looks at Clauses 32 to 35, it clearly states the powers of the Chairman of INEC sitting at this Collation Centre and those powers of INEC Chairman does not involve the inquisition, the type of inquisition that my friend is asking for.

“The details that my friend is asking for amounts to an inquisition into the results submitted to the Chairman of INEC. There is a proper avenue into how many people were captured by the card readers and all of that and compared into the results.

“That is not the duties of the Chairman sitting at this Collation Centre and those procedures are clearly spelt out there. So for us as a party, for my candidate, we are totally objecting to that procedure here,” he stated.

In his response, Professor Yakubu said the request made by the PDP’s spokesperson should be channeled to the Commission’s headquarters.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

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