The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba on Tuesday rejected the results of the Feb 25 local government elections in the state and called on the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) to refund the monies that it collected from APC candidates  for the election that never held.

The State Chairman of the party Alhaji Sani Chul said this today at a news conference in Jalingo.

Chul said that the commission deceived the party by its promise of a level playing ground for all political parties and participants and collected their monies when they knew that there was not going to be any election but a mere charade.

“The chairman of SIEC Dr Philip Duwe had assured us of his impartiality in the discharge of his duties but as it turned out, it was only a false promise.

“What happened was a mere charade calculated more at inciting the people than the pretext for an election. The election was a theatre of absurdities and in most cases, no vote was cast at all and yet results were announced and winners declared.”

Chul accused the electoral body and the Nigeria police of working to ensure that the entire process was a failure, citing instances of ballot box snatching, non delivery of elections materials, disruption of the process by violence and where election were not held at all results were announced and winners declared.

He, therefore, called for the refund of all the monies the candidates were deceived into paying to obtain forms under the pretext that there would be election.

“In the light of the irregularities that characterised the elections and given our strong objection to injustice, we strongly condemn the conduct of the exercise and reject in totality its result. We also demand, as of right, that all the monies paid to the SIEC for the purchase of forms by our candidates be refunded forthwith,” Chul said.

The Executive Chairman of SIEC Dr Philip Duwe on Monday admitted that the exercise was not devoid of challenges but called on all parties to remain calm, assuring that the commission had learnt its lessons and would work to improve on the process subsequently.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state Independent Electoral Commission had on Monday declared the PDP as the winner of the 16 chairmanship and 178 councillorship seats in the state.