By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
The Board of Trustee Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sen. Walid Jubrin has commended the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) for a free, fair and peaceful conduct of Nasarawa central constituency election for the state house of Assembly.
Sen. Jubrin in a statement on Sunday on the conduct of the election admitted that although PDP lost, it was a peaceful and fair exercise. The elder statesman said that there were no visible presence of security personnel interfering with the process.
The BoT recommended that INEC should replicate same degree of transparency in 2023 and even be allowed to handle local government election.
He said, “At an interactive session with stakeholders I emphasized the need for free, fair and transparent election emphasizing that the bye election should be a test case for the coming 2023 elections. I also emphasized to the two political parties, PDP and APC involved in the bye election to work in unity avoiding any infighting and any bad behavior.
“May I therefore congratulate INEC and all of us for adhering to the advice of INEC Chairman. I want to state therefore that the bye election conducted last Saturday was conducted under good atmosphere obeying the rules and also following the rules and regulations of COVID-19.
“During the last election, I did not witness any fight, the advises of the INEC National Chairman and my own as the PDP BoT Chairman were strictly followed.
“May I advise all parties to follow the example of Nasarawa Bye election extremely. Even though APC defeated us we should never fight with any one. May I also praise the efforts of all security agencies. I did not see any soldier on sight. At this juncture may I advise that all elections in the local governments state and National to be conducted by INEC.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ismail Danbaba, won the bye-election won the last Saturday election.
Announcing the result, Mr Umar said the APC candidate scored 7,475 to defeat Bage Nuhu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 4,608 votes.
