Aduda Heads To Tribunal, Says FCT Senatorial Election Inconclusive

Barely three weeks after the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senatorial District, which produced Ireti Kingibe as Senator-elect, her closest rival and incumbent Senator Philip Tanimu Aduda has vowed to challenge outcome of the election at the Election Petitions Tribunal.

Senator Aduda, who is the Minority Leader of the 9th Senate, told journalists at the National Assembly Complex on Thursday that his plan of challenging the result of the FCT senatorial election was informed by the fact that the result was announced when collations at the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) were yet to be completed and even with utter disregard to results cancelled in other polling units across the 62 wards of the six Area Councils.

“The election, as guided by the extant laws used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is supposed to have been declared inconclusive.

“Pointedly in substantial numbers of the polling units, there were over-voting which led to cancellation of results that supposed to have been revisited by INEC through rescheduled election but from nowhere, we heard that results were declared.

“We are going to challenge it,” Aduda said.

On his capacity and service delivery to FCT residents over the years as a lawmaker, Senator Aduda said: “Within my 12 years in the Senate and eight years in the House of Representatives, a lot of development-driven projects have been facilitated by me across the 62 Wards and six Area Councils, many of which are still ongoing.

“I believe it is the person declared as winner of the election that has no capacity because if she has the capacity common Google will show her what I have done.

“It will show you that I led a protest to this place. On the floor of the Senate I had to discuss about this issue of Naira redesign and other motions on issues of urgent national importance.

“We have a road we are constructing in Kubwa, over N1bn, another one in Nyanya, over N1bn, we have the ones we are doing in Bwari, if I don’t have the capacity and cannot represent the people, I don’t think I can attract those projects to the various communities or Area Councils. I am not talking of Gwagwalada or Kwali or Kuje, I am only talking about the urban center, the environment here.

“These are aside very important Bills sponsored by me, passed by the National Assembly and assented to, by President Muhammadu Buhari like the one of Federal College of Education Zuba that has been there for over 17 years without graduation until we passed that Bill.”

He added that he put on ground infrastructure in various areas like provisions of classrooms, Primary Healthcare Centers, provision of portable water, provision of rural electrification, construction of roads across the Area Councils in the FCT, Small & Medium Scale empowerment programmes and provision of student bursary to over 3,000 beneficiaries drawn across the sixty 62 electoral wards of the six Area Councils.