Francis Sardauna in Katsina
Following the declaration of Governor Aminu Bello Masari as winner of the March 9 governorship election in Katsina State, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Yakubu Lado Danmarke, has vowed to reclaim what he described as “stolen mandate” in the court of competent jurisdiction.
Addressing journalists at his residence in Kankara yesterday on the fallout of the election, Danmarke said the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a robbery of the mandate given to him by the electorate.
INEC had yesterday morning declared Masari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner, having scored a total of 1,178,864 votes to defeat Danmarke of PDP, who polled 488,621 votes in the exercise.
He said: “We rejected the result of the election because the Katsina people know what they voted for but the victory was upturned by some bad elements.
From the beginning, the election was going on well, and around 3 to 4 o’clock, in all the reports we received, we were leading by far.
“And from the result we have, the total people who voted were not more than eight hundred thousand. So, we wonder where they found those results. It is really shocking. This is something that is unacceptable because our score is close to five hundred thousand while theirs (APC) was two hundred and ninety something thousand.”
While stressing that the election had been foreclosed and marred with irregularities by those he said relied on rigging to win, the PDP gubernatorial candidate warned the government of Katsina State and its alleged collaborators against “short-changing” the people of the state.
According to him, it is absolutely unacceptable for people in the rural areas to be prevented from exercising their franchises as they ought to, vowing to follow the due process as required by law to retrieve his mandates.
“However, I am calling on our teeming supporters in the state to remain calm and obey the law and order as we take legal action against the result,” he added.
