Television Nigerian

Security operatives have arrested the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives Alhassan Ado-Doguwa for allegedly burning 13 people alive and shooting three others to death in Tudunwada Local Government Area of Kano State on Sunday.

Mr Doguwa led hundreds of thugs to set the campaign office of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, on fire while dozens of party supporters were inside.

Mr Doguwa, who is the House of Representatives candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Doguwa/Tudun-Wada Federal Constituency, had earlier disrupted the collation of election results and forced the returning officer to declare him winner under duress.

It was reported that while the office was on fire, he stood by the median of the road and allegedly used the service pistol of his orderly to kill those trying to flee from the fire.

A witness who visited the graves of the 16 victims told this newspaper that on the day of the attack only three bodies were seen, adding that 13 more charred bodies were discovered the following day.

Credible security sources stated that Mr Doguwa was arrested on Tuesday alongside his orderly at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, when they were trying to leave the country.

The source said, “The House Leader Ado Doguwa has been arrested on the orders of the Inspector General of Police Baba Alkali for using service pistol of his orderly to shoot three people to death and burning dozen others alive.

“They were on the verge of fleeing the country when the security operatives nabbed them. The IGP expressed serious concern over the incident and insisted they must be arrested and brought to book for committing such a heinous crime.”

Attempts by our correspondent to get the reaction of the police spokesman in the state, Haruna Abdullahi, were unsuccessful, as he neither picked up calls nor responded to an SMS sent to his known phone number.

On Tuesday, the New Nigeria Peoples Party demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission halt the collation process, call off the 2023 general elections, and hold new elections.
The party premised its demand on the facts that while its members were disenfranchised with their logo blurred in the ballot, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), violated the Electoral Act by campaigning on the day of the election through the display of the candidate they voted for.

While thanking Nigerians, especially their teaming youths for their support, the NNPP said it was concerned that going by what happened during the conduct of the presidential election, INEC took the country back to the pre-2015 era, where ballot box snatching, violence, and voting buying and security agencies supporting the ruling party was prevalent.

The NNPP National Chairman, Prof. Rufai Alkali, at a press conference in Abuja, said the election should be canceled and a fresh one organized.

He said, “INEC used the most blurred image of our logo in the ballot paper that did not reflect the symbol of our party. Many of our party supporters could not identify the logo. They not only confused our supporters but disenfranchised them.

“On election day, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami were seen showing Nigerians which party they should vote for.

“Campaign on election day amounts to causing a crisis since the Electoral Act says the ballot is secret. Campaign on election day is illegal based on the Electoral Act.

“This illegality done by the President and the Minister of Justice on election day speaks volumes. The election results being announced by INEC should be canceled.”

Speaking on the conduct of the election, Alkali said despite the Naira swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, vote buying was more, adding that in every electoral ward in the country, people were seen sharing money and raw food, and other inducements.

He said, “In the majority of the polling units, BVAS failed and some did not work and people were not allowed to vote. In most places, ballot boxes were stuffed with ballot papers.

“Where BVAS worked, there were attempts to change the results of the election,” Alkali said, adding that political parties were told that elections would be transmitted electronically.

“We were told election results will be transmitted electronically, but the ruling party and their candidate rejected it and INEC refused to upload the results in most of the polling units and election results were intercepted and changed.

“To save our democracy and our country, the present election results must not be accepted by Nigerians and by all friends of Nigeria.

“We are therefore calling on the immediate suspension of the announcement of results and the cancellation of the 2023 presidential election across the country. New elections should be conducted as soon as possible. The results of the election were changed on transit which is why the new electoral act seeks to avoid.”

The Saturday, February 25, presidential and National Assembly elections, according to the African Democratic Congress, were not credible, free, or fair.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, along with the so-called major parties, engaged in widespread vote-buying, voter intimidation, vote suppression, and result manipulation, as evidenced by various reports from polling units and collation centers, according to a statement released by the AAC on Monday through its National Publicity Secretary, Femi Adeyeye.

The AAC added that the lack of planning and logistical ineptitude displayed by INEC have produced the poisoned chalice the INEC chairman was serving Nigerians on national TV as election results.

The AAC while reminding Nigerians that it had warned during meetings of party leaders with the chairman of INEC, Mahmoud Yakubu, about the looming danger of not crying out for help before the elections, said they saw the contrived cash crunch crisis and fuel scarcity as clogs that would mar logistical and personnel competence of the electoral umpire.

Adeyeye further remarked that, “The non-upload of the result sheets at the (polling) unit level after voting is a breach of the Electoral Act and the INEC Guidelines made pursuant to the Act.

“Section 60 (5) of the 2022 Electoral Act empowers INEC to prescribe guidelines for the transmission of election results. Pursuant to that subsection, INEC clearly stipulated in clause 38 of its Regulations and Guidelines that election results must be transmitted electronically via the BVAS after announcement at the polling units”, he said.

Continuing, the spokesperson noted that the guidelines criminalised failure to comply with this provision.

“Section 64 (4a&b) of the Electoral Act, 2022 lends further credence to the transmission to the iRev before they are announced to Nigerians. Why is the rule being bent at this time? Our National Secretary who is also our national election collation agent has consistently raised this breach of the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines at the National Collation Centre but the INEC chairman keeps dodging addressing these concerns.”

He noted that their party could no longer continue to sit and watch INEC continue in the illegality and perpetrate electoral injustice against the Nigerian people.

He said, “This is why we have decided to withdraw our collation agent from the charade and illegality going on at the National Collation Centre since our probing questions to the Commission have remained unanswered till this minute.”

The AAC maintained that it be put on record that as a party, it would not support any illegality, even when it’s done against the party’s contenders, and we shall also resist any form of extra-normal activity as a ruling class “solution” to the crisis at hand.

While calling on the ruling class to shelve their plans to constitute an interim government, as that would be their gain in this imbroglio, the party strongly opposed the constitution of an interim government, adding that it shall mobilise Nigerians to resist such plan.

“We call on INEC to follow the law and its own guidelines and also calling for the cancellation of results not uploaded, collated and read from the server, in accordance with the Electoral Act and Guidelines. Elections should be reconducted in areas ridded with vote buying, intimidation, violence, technical issues with BVAS and other malpractices stated by parties and independent monitoring bodies,” it stated.