ICPC Urged To Probe INEC Results Before Election Tribunal

Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, has called on the Independent Corruption Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) to investigate those who brought fake INEC results to the FCT Election Tribunal, which misled the judges to give judgement against him in respect to the chairmanship election.

He said until that is done, the 2023 general election is not safe, because what happened in the Tribunal can equally happen in the general election, thereby charging media practitioners to always advocate for justice to be done in every facet of society, to pave way for inclusive and rapid development.

The chairman noted that journalists as the Fourth Estate of the realm should make good use of their position to address injustice, which, according to him, gave birth to crisis and insecurity in society today.

Maikalangu, who gave this charge during an interaction with the leadership and some members of the FCT Minister’s Press Corps (FCT-MPC) in the council, at the weekend, described AMAC as one of the biggest area councils in the nation, and one of the best in the FCT.

“I want you to make good use of your offices and position in the society, to please address injustice because it is an injustice that gave birth to crisis and insecurity in our society today, especially when you are trying to forcefully take over the peoples’ mandate.

“You have the responsibility to always defend the votes (the peoples’ mandate), by advocating that let justice be done. You will all agree with me that on the February 12, 2022 election, the election was conducted, and it went smoothly, free and fair.

“I got over 19, 300 votes while my main opponent had 13, 200 plus votes. These figures are right there in the INEC Portal. But, to our surprise, the Tribunal got different figures from nowhere. And from what happened, I believe that the Tribunal was misled. We campaigned and made promises to people better lives, which we intend to fulfill, but someone is trying to take it from the people.

“But, I must commend our President, Muhammadu Buhari, and our FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, for trading on the path of peace in the FCT. They allowed peaceful elections in the FCT, this ensured that people came out and voted for their candidates. And with the help of God Almighty, I emerged as AMAC chairman,” he said.

The AMAC chairman also commended INEC for introducing the BVAS machine, which ensures that during elections, the moment voting is concluded at the polling units, the result sheet is immediately sent to the INEC server, adding that INEC is moving forward, but some people are trying to take INEC backward.