BY Taiwo Adebulu
Isah Ashiru, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna state, has requested for a recount of votes cast in the March 9 election in the state.
This is contained in an application filed on Tuesday by Elisha Kurah, counsel to the PDP candidate, at the election petition tribunal in the state capital.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Nasir el-Rufai, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the election, saying he polled 1,045,427 votes to defeat Ashiru who garnered 814,168 votes.
Speaking with reporters after the pre-hearing session, Kurah said he asked the tribunal to direct INEC to recount the votes afresh, as most of the results declared after the election were phantom votes.
He said the result of the recount will show that the PDP actually won the election in the state.
“We filed an application requesting to recount the votes cast during the election,” Kurah said.
“It is very crucial as we are alleging which is supported by the evidence we have that most of the results declared were phantom votes.
“They were backed up by votes in the ballot boxes. So we want a complete recount of the votes cast in the governorship election.
“We are expecting that the results would show that the PDP actually won the election. But votes were just inflated randomly just to make the APC have the semblance of winning.”
Ibrahim Bako, the presiding judge, adjourned the session till May 25 to give room for INEC and other respondents file their responses to the application.
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