Katsina state chairman of the All Progressive Congress APC Shitu Shitu has denied allegation that the party is mounting pressure on INEC through the presidency to win the coming Mashi/Dutsi bye election.
Shitu said in a chat with newsmen that the allegation is baseless and foolhardy noting that ‘ APC as a party believes in rule of law and cannot and has never influence INEC to favour it in any election’
According to him, the APC only needs 650 votes from the 15 poling units in the coming bye election to maintain its seat as against 8370 the PDP needs to overturned the election.
‘The court also deduct 364 and 214 votes of APC and PDP respectively from three poling units, thereby bring down the total votes of the election to APC having 27,607 while PDP has 19,307’ he said.
He said, it is not an issue for the presidency to come so low to intervene in the election noting that ‘ we all know the disposition of President Buhari on independency of constituted authority and from several elections that have taken place, he never forces INEC to do otherwise’
It could be recalled that an appeal court has upheld the judgement of an election tribunal that ordered for a fresh election in 15 poling units.
The APC was leading with 27, 968 votes as against PDP with 19,451 votes. The 15 polling units in contention have a total votes of 9,089 voters.
