Senator Moro (PDP), representing Benue South Senatorial, said no election was held in the state, saying what happened was a mere selection which was orchestrated by the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC).
The former minister of Interior lamented how democracy is sleeping off our hands, while he further stated that the last Saturday’s local government council election in Benue state was an insult to democracy.
In a chat with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, Sen Moro said Benue case is so pathetic and unfortunate, saying that the nonsense is taking place in a state where a clergymaan (Catholic Reverend Father) is a governor.
“There was no election in Benue State on Saturday, 5th of October 2024; what happened on that day was selection. I can say this, I can take it to the bank.
“No election took place, people went to the various polling units, waited for hours and electoral materials were not taken to the polling units. The electoral officers, presiding officers and the rest of them didn’t show up.
“In many of the polling units, police men and soldiers waited in vain without the presence of electoral officers. People waited at the ward collation centres.
“We heard from good authority that most of the exercises took place in the houses of the chieftains of APC in various local government.
“I was also told that some semblance of election took place in some isolated places, in some local government areas.
“That was what happened in Benue state, Benue South in particular. So at best what happened in Benue State on election day was a scam, a sham election, it was a charade. As a matter of fact an insult to democracy”, he said.
The Minority Leader opined that the LG Council Poll is a gradual destruction of the democracy, and I urge all Nigerians, all men of goodwill, to rise up to the challenge.
He disclosed that all that the Nigerian governors are fighting for is the local government allocation.
According to him, the Governor’s , “Are just after the money and put their surrogates there, so that they can have authority over the coffers of the various local governments, but I have been talking with some of my colleagues and some other commentators. We are prepared to face up the challenge”.
Continuing he said, “I was told that election took place in three council wards, including Ogule Kaduna, where a candidate of PDP scored 575,557 votes against 501 votes of the APC.
“It was so declared at the venue of the election, but of course, like it was observed in virtually all the places, no electoral materials were taken there, and so they had only photocopies of result sheets, even though the people say, okay fine, if you say photocopy that you have, record the results and give to us, and they recorded the results and gave to them, only for the headquarters of the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission to disavow those results.
“Similar things happened in other local governments where elections were held in some isolated council wards.
”PDP won in the only council ward where election was conducted, and unfortunately, they didn’t give the person the certificate of return, so that is what happened in Benue State over the weekend and Benue South Senatorial District in particular. Like I’ve said elsewhere, what happened in Benue State on election day was a scam”.
Spark News Daily reports that APC won the 23 local government chairmanship positions in Benue State.
