Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State, Mohammed Jajari, has alleged that the presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25th February in the state were marred by irregularities such as non-functional BVAS, inflation of votes at polling units and change of results among others.
The PDP gubernatorial hopeful made the allegations yesterday in Maiduguri at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Maiduguri.
He thanked the electorate in Borno for coming out en masse to vote for the PDP in the last election and appealed to them to do the same on March 11 to vote out the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its unpopular policies out of the state.
He said the election was supposedly free and fair, saying that the contrary was what was witnessed.
“We thank the people of Borno for coming out en masse to vote for the PDP in the last election. That election was supposedly free and fair election, but that was not what we witnessed. The election was flawed with a lot of irregularities, BVAS were not working, there were inflating of votes at polling units, there were change of results and so many other irregularities.
“Today as a governorship candidate of the PDP, I am here to encourage and thank the good people of Borno to have faith in the same process and come out en masse to vote again for the PDP in the upcoming 11th of March Governorship and State Assembly elections. We have learnt our lessons in the last election and we are assuring the good people of Borno that these flaws will be rectified, ” Jajari said.
On the rumour making round that he had stepped down for the incumbent governor, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, Jajari said it is rather expected that Zulum would step down for him having lost the confidence of the people.
“The people of Borno have shown that the APC administration has failed them hence they came out en masse to vote for the PDP in the last election. As a leader, if you notice that people are getting disenchanted with you, the best thing is to step aside. So, I expect Zulum to withdraw and support the PDP instead of false rumours.
“We have better programmes of which if we are given the opportunity to govern the state, the people of Borno will smile again. What we are witnessing in the state now is government of associates, crannies and sycophants,” he said.
