SDP Heads To Court Over House Of Reps Election

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) said it has commenced a legal process to claim the allegedly stolen mandate of the House of Representatives for Jalingo/Yoro/Zing federal constituency of Taraba State.

The supplementary election for the House of Representatives for the constituency was conducted on February 14, 2024 where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Sadiq Abbas, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner while the candidate of the SDP Innocent Jabayang was declared the runner up with a close margin.

The returning officer for the election, Prof Olarenwaju Oladipo of the Federal University Wukari while declaring the result on Thursday said the winner of the election, Hon Sadiq Abbas of the PDP scored 19,681 votes to defeat Hon Innocent Jabayang of the SDP who scored 16,379 votes. According to INEC, the difference between the two was 3,302.

Reacting to the declaration, Hon Jabayang told journalists in Jalingo, the Tataba State capital that he has already commenced a legal process to claim the mandate which he alleged was stolen in connivance between the INEC and the PDP.

“My lawyers have already commenced a legal process; I won the election, INEC connived with the PDP to rig my election. I have proven evidence to show to the judiciary that my mandate was stolen, I am going to follow it to the judicial conclusion to get justice,” he said.

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He stressed that there were series of manipulations to favour the PDP candidate in the election which were allegedly orchestrated by INEC staff to deny him victory. “We had issues of cancellations in polling units where they know that I won. There were issues of over voting against BVAS accreditations to favour the PDP candidate. All these are with my lawyers and I am ready to defend the mandate which was given to me by the voters,” Jabayang stated.