Kano PDP accuses ANPP of tampering with polls materials

Kano State Governor-elect Rabiu Kwankwaso has alleged that the incumbent All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) administration had tampered with ballot papers used in last month’s governorship election in the state before they are tendered at the governorship election petitions tribunal.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate was declared winner of the April 26 poll over the ANPP candidate.

A statement yesterday by the governor-elect’s spokesman, Mallam Jaafar Jaafar, alleged that ANPP had hired some American forensic experts to examine the ballot papers, after seeking a court order to have access to the election materials by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Kwankwaso said: "Both the court order and the forensic analysis were carried out secretly without the knowledge of the press, representatives of other political parties that contested the election and other stakeholders.

"If there is no any ulterior motive behind the analysis, these individuals should have been invited to monitor the examination."

He alleged that the foreign forensic experts may have programmed their machines to tamper with the thumb-prints of the votes cast in favour of the PDP so that they could tender the doctored results of the analysis before the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

Kwankwaso said: "We are not apprehensive of forensic analysis because we are very much sure that the votes cast in our favour during the election were genuine. While we are confident that our votes are genuine, the clandestine nature of getting the court order and the analysis give us cause for alarm.

"Given the foregoing reasons, the Office of the Governor-elect hereby rejects the results of the analysis and urges INEC to devise ways of dousing the tension to restore confidence of all the parties involved."

But Governor Ibrahim Shekarau’s media aide, Sule Yau Sule, dismissed the allegation as diversionary.

He said if the PDP had not rigged the election, it would not have raised the alarm over any petition pending at the elections tribunal challenging the declaration of its candidate as winner.

The Administrative Secretary of the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Alhaji Moyi Kaura, denied the receipt of any court order, urging INEC to grant ANPP access to the election materials.