By Hassan Sani Indabawa
What actually happened in Taraba was a brazen theft of a mandate won by Professor Sani Yahaya of NNPP.
The conduct of the PDP-led government of Taraba state was condemnable and disingenuous.
Sensing apparent defeat, the mode of electoral fraud was activated to thwart the will of Taraba majority voters.
When the tally was clearly in NNPP candidate’s favour, the state machinery was massively activated to thwart the clear lead of Professor Sani Yahaya. This was done by delaying the collation in some local governments to enable mass vote stuffing, thus posting unrealistic figures.
For instance, in Wukari local government alone, over 50,000 votes were over stuffed to neutralize any possible lead of NNPP in the remaining Sardauna and Kurmi LGAs, the remaining two local governments waiting to be collated.
The NNPP agent at the collation center made some frenetic efforts to block the over stuffed votes, but both agents of PDP and APC who are both Christians, ganged up against him to actualize a nefarious plan perfected by Governor Darius Ishaku and other anti-Muslim forces.
Another unfortunate fact was the attitude of NNPP leadership by ignoring the implications of leaving Taraba State NNPP to its fate. With the active support and extremely jaundiced position of General T. Y. Danjuma, who swore to deny any Muslim from becoming a governor in the state, Rabiu Kwankwaso and other NNPP national leadership should have relocated to Taraba to ensure the required vigilance and protection of their party’s chances.
But many are of the view that both Kwankwaso and NNPP were surprised by the performance of the party and therefore did not prepare for the outcome until it was too late.
Otherwise, NNPP national leader, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Buba Galadima and other NNPP national leadership should not have stayed in Kano with all the arsenal at their disposal while allowing evil forces in Taraba to deny a Muslim from becoming the state governor.
Writes By Hassan Sani Indabawa a Political Commentator
