All Progressive Congress, APC senatorial candidate for Benue South, Daniel Onjeh dismissed the results of Saturday’s congressional elections.
Onjeh, in a statement issued and provided to our correspondent on Wednesday, alleges that the election results were manipulated.
The Independent National Election Commission, INEC, declared the People’s Democratic Party, PDP candidate, Abba Morro the winner of the election.
But Onjeh, who previously said he was studying the results to decide his next course of action, claimed he had won the election but alleged that the two-mode voter authentication system (; B-VAS) has been manipulated.
He has vowed to challenge the electoral process at the Election Petition Court.
The statement read: “I would like to condemn and reject in full the results of the Senate elections on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at Benue South, of which I am the candidate of the APC, due to the disrespect for existing laws that are supposed to guide the electoral process, given the numerous irregularities that characterize the collection and publication of results.
“From every indication, it was very clear to me that I had indeed won the election, but the secret manipulations of one of my opponents and the fifth columnist of my party, in collusion with some of the ‘INEC’ flexible leaders, ensured that the result was overturned in favor of Senator Abba Moro of the PDP, who was ultimately declared the winner. “With the enactment of the Elections Act of 2022 by President Muhammadu Buhari and the subsequent introduction of the two-mode ‘B-VAS’ voter verification system; by INEC, new hope has been rekindled among Nigerian voters that the era of vote manipulation and other electoral fraud is over, but little do we know that our critics and enemies of democracies devised and perfected new strategies for rigging elections.
“We found, for example, that while INEC maintained the total number of recognized voters per polling station in Benue South, in practice they exchanged votes; thus awarding the highest number of votes obtained in certain voting units to their preferred highest bidder; and down vote me.
“I would like to declare that I am protesting the results of the Senate elections on Saturday, February 25 at Benue South before the Electoral Petition Court.
“I have therefore notified INEC, asking the Commission to provide us with Certified True Copies (CTCs) of all relevant documents and original B-VAS records for the Benue polling stations. South before reconfiguring the machines for the upcoming gubernatorial election.
