The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of a plot to subvert Thursday’s supplementary election in Kaura Namoda South state constituency of Zamfara State.

The election was first held on August 16, was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which ordered a rerun in five polling units.

INEC explained that the margin of lead between the two leading candidates was 1,662, adding that based on Section 24(3) and (4) of the Electoral Act 2022, an election must be held in the affected polling units to determine a winner.

The affected polling units, the commission added, have a total of 3,572 registered voters, out of which 3,265 permanent voter cards (PVCs) were collected by voters.

PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba, at a press conference on Wednesday, alleged that a minister from Zamfara State is currently deploying full battalions of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Mobile Police Force and the Directorate of State Services (DSS), from Abuja and other parts of the country to affected polling units.

“The aim of this nefarious deployment is to foist a siege mentality on the people of the constituency, intimidate, terrorise and prevent them from coming out to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote, having realised that the APC has been soundly rejected by the people of Zamfara State,” Ologunagba stated.

He added that the intelligence report available to the party revealed that the APC intends to use the security agencies to bully and prevent officials of INEC “from conducting a free, fair and credible electoral process as well as assist the APC to manipulate and declare a result that is at variance with the expressed will and aspiration of the people.”

Ologunagba noted that the APC’s resort to state-backed intimidation and force in the election is a clear signal of the creeping totalitarianism and one-party state in the country.

He warned that this is a recipe for crisis, and called on Nigerians and the international community to hold the APC responsible should there be any breakdown of law and order in Kaura Namoda South state constituency or any part of Zamfara State.

“Moreover, the PDP and, of course, the people of Zamfara State will not accept any results that are at variance with the expressed will of the people as evidenced by the already collated results from Kaura Namoda South state constituency.

“It is clear and the APC should know that Zamfara State is a PDP state and the people are standing firmly with the PDP and Governor Dauda Lawal, who has turned around the state with the implementation of life-enhancing infrastructural, human capital and citizen empowerment development programmes and will never surrender to the assaults of the APC,” he said.

He called on President Bola Tinubu to demand for immediate halt “this APC’s plot to use security forces to undermine democracy and subvert the sovereign will of the people to freely elect their own representatives.”