The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River has rejected the outcome of last Saturday’s local government elections in the state.
The Cross River Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) on Sunday declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of all 18 chairmanship and 196 councillorship seats across the state.
In a statement issued on Monday, the PDP chairman in the state, Mr. Venatius Ikem, insisted that the elections fell short of acceptable standards.
He vowed that the party would challenge the outcome in a competent court of law.
The chairman described the election as a well-orchestrated rigging plan which includes the diversion of election materials, late arrival of insufficient ballot papers without standard serial numbers, and result sheets.
He noted that at most of the polling units, CROSIEC official stamps were not available for the Presiding Officers to stamp the ballot papers after appending their signatures for authentication as required by law.
Ikem said: “From inception, the processes were skewed to favour the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the composition of the electoral umpire.
“We underrated the charade that the electoral umpire was cooking in the name of the local government election witnessed on Saturday, November 2.
“In Calabar South, Municipality, Obudu, Abi, Obubra in particular, election materials, meant for the entire local governments, were diverted to the houses of APC stalwarts where thumb printings were brazenly carried out.
“For instance, in Obudu no single election material was issued to anyone except the APC that took custody and carted them away to the Military School in Bedia.
“At this location, soldiers cordoned off everyone except APC members ostensibly on the orders of a serving army General from the area who is an elder brother of the APC candidate.
“Again, in Obanlikwu and Bekwarra local government areas where ballot papers were distributed no single results sheets accompanied them and results were written on ordinary papers.
“Accordingly, we reject any result emanating from the purported election because, as far as we are concerned, there was nothing like a local government election in Cross River.
“We state boldly that never in the political history of Cross River have electorate witnessed this kind of monumental electoral fraud perpetrated on Saturday.
“We urge all our members to remain calm and peaceful as the party shall pursue the outcome in a competent court of law.”