‘It should been declared inconclusive,’ Aduda vows to challenge FCT senatorial election in court

Phillip Aduda, senate minority leader, says he has concluded arrangements to drag the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the declared winner of the FCT Saturday, 25th February Senatorial election, Ireti Kingibe to court over the outcome of the poll he described as enveloped in manipulations

Aduda who addressed journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said that instead of declaring Kingibe as the winner, INEC would have declared the election inconclusive as that would have made the process transparent, fair, free and credible.

He alleged that INEC erred in the process of the election as a winner was declared when the collation of results of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and other areas in the FCT were still in process and not concluded.

He argued that as part of moves to address the marginalization of the original Inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory, President Muhammadu Buhari should as a matter of urgency, implement the interpretation and judgement of the Supreme Court that describes the status of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT as a state.

Senator Aduda said that the implementation of the judgement of the Court of appeal delivered in January 2018 and the recent one by the Apex Court has become imperative against the backdrop that the people of the FCT should be treated as an integral part of the country by allowing them exercise their right to vote and produce their political leaders at that level.

On the FCT National Assembly election, the Minority leader said, “Though the 2023 senatorial elections came with its challenges and concerns that we hope to address legally, we strongly believe that with your continuous support and prayers for a better FCT under our leadership, we will come out stronger. The faith to continue the struggle has come from the famous quote of Franklin D Roosevelt that; “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the belief that there is something more than fear.”

He continued, “Unfortunately or fortunately, we had a situation apart from the fact that there was over voting, you saw it all over the country we heard that results were cancelled. Apart from that this election results were cancelled and were supposed to be rescheduled, you heard it, you saw it, from nowhere we had that results were declared.

“We are going to challenge it, I have represented the people very well and I have done the best I can, you can attest to that I came to the House of Representatives at the age of 33, by 41, I was in the Senate. I believe I have done very well and if the FCT residents feel that voting an old woman of about 70 years old and giving her capacity as against a 53 year old young man and bringing in somebody who is old enough to be my mother I think something is wrong. Even the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi spoke against old politicians who are supposed to retire at the age of 70 and she is just beginning to represent us.

“I am very close to Peter Obi when he was in the PDP, we share a lot of friendship. He has assisted me in the past and I have assisted him. She rode on the popularity of Peter Obi, ordinarily if she faces me in an ordinary contest, I will always defeat her. We have had this type of contest before she was in the PDP, we have been contesting against each other, she knows me and I know her I am not going to join issues with her or dwell so much on this, because this is all about the representation for the FCT. By God’s grace we are still there and this will not deter us in the remaining months that we have to represent the people with the fear of God Almighty and we will continue to do the best that we can.

“She did not contest primary but we did not challenge that because we felt there was no need to challenge that because we were not part of the party and we did not join issues with her, we were so transparent as we refused to sponsor people to move against her.”

Recall that Ireti, the wife of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babagana Kingibe of the Labour Party, LP garnered 202,175 votes while Philip Aduda of the PDP polled 100,544 votes to come second in the race while Angulu Dobi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) placed third with 78,905 votes.The Returning Officer of INEC, Professor Sanni Saka of the University of Abuja, announced the result.