Going to Court, Waste Of Time, Energy, And Resources – Murtala Ajaka

Going to Court, waste of time, energy, and resources – Murtala Ajaka

By Solomon Mattes, Lokoja

“I’ve been around for the past 20 years. I know what it is. What am I going to court to do when the same INEC that did this is going to come as a witness to defend what they did? So it is a waste of time governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Saturday’s election in Kogi State, Mrtala Ajaka, has said he would not challenge the outcome of the election in court.

Murtala Ajaka stated this in an interview on Channels Television on Sunday night shortly after the result of the poll was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
Theommission declared Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the election after polling 446,237 votes. Mr Ajaka scored 259,052 votes to place second.

The SDP alleged that INEC officials compromised the process in Mr Ododo’s favour and that challenging the result would be a waste of time.

“Except the party, people…because I am hugely disappointed. If the INEC chairman allows this to stand, they are looking for trouble in Nigeria,” he said.

Mr Ajaka urged INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to investigate the involvement of electoral officers in the election.

“In Okene Local Government, they turned out over 130,000 votes. Haba! And INEC accepted that result and what is on the BVAS is less than 30,000,” he said.

“With all due respect to the person of the INEC chairman, if they don’t do a checklist and investigate their officials that went to Kogi State and allow this to stand, I doubt if there will be election in 2027. Because people will go into that election armed and I fear Somalia will be a child’s play.

“If we knew it would be the same old music, we would have played along with that old music by inflating the results from my area,” he said.

The SDP claimed that he invested a lot of money in the election to mobilise his supporters due to the transparency that INEC promised him.

Mr Ajaka said he wasted much of his time on the election.

“You gave me assurances that the election would be transparent, you allowed me to waste my time, spend my money, mobilise my people, only for you to write the results. Even if I am not sad about it, you expect my supporters to be happy.

“I assure you if they allow this to stand as they are allowed in all the states now, they are calling for anarchy in this country,” he said.

|