By Umar Dankano Yola.
All candidates of the African Democratic Congress,ADC that contested for both chairmanship and councilors seats in the just concluded local government election in Adamawa state have rejected the outcome of the elections.
The aggrieved candidates described the exercise as a “charade” insisting that no elections were conducted across the state’s 21 local government areas dema nding for fresh polls
Speaking at a press conference in Yola on Monday, spokesman of the group Hon.Abubakar Ahmadu alleged that the exercise conducted by the Adamawa State Independent Electoral Commission (ADSIEC) fell short of democratic standards and lacked the basic ingredients of a credible election.
The ADC candidates, comprising 14 chairmanship and 128 councillors who were screened and cleared by ADSIEC to contest the polls, maintained that the electoral process never took place on the scheduled date despite preparations by political parties and candidates.
”We wish to state emphatically that elections did not hold in all the local government councils across the state on June 13, 2026. There was no election conducted in Adamawa State on the said date. We therefore wonder how results were concocted and how winners emerged,”Ahmadu said.
The candidates accused electoral authorities of undermining democracy and alleged that the announced results did not reflect the will of the people.
According to them, while local government elections in Nigeria have often attracted criticism over alleged irregularities, the conduct of the Adamawa exercise represented what they termed “the height of electoral banditry.”
In a pointed comparison, the ADC candidates argued that previous controversial electoral episodes in the state, including the widely debated “Hudu saga,” appeared more transparent than the process that produced the June 13 local government election results.
They called on democracy advocates, civil society organisations, labour unions, constitutional rights groups and other stakeholders to intervene and defend democratic principles in the state.
The candidates also appealed to Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri to uphold the democratic ideals that, according to them, contributed to his political rise.
”Governor Fintiri is himself a product of political and electoral activism that safeguarded electoral integrity. He must not destroy the very ladder that lifted him to power,” the group stated.
Rejecting the declared results in their entirety, the ADC candidates said they do not recognise the announced winners, whom they described as beneficiaries of an illegitimate process.
They consequently demanded that ADSIEC fix a new date for what they called a credible, transparent and inclusive local government election across Adamawa State.
The candidates warned that the controversy surrounding the exercise could further erode public confidence in the electoral process and discourage voter participation in future elections.
”Our greatest concern is the dangerous precedent this sets and the adverse consequences it holds for future elections,” they said. “The electorate is already angry and may lose interest in subsequent elections if local government polls, which are the foundation of democracy, are reduced to selection by fiat.”
The ADC candidates vowed to pursue all lawful and democratic avenues to challenge the outcome of the election and seek what they described as the restoration of electoral sanity in Adamawa State.
The Adamawa State Independent Electoral Commission had earlier declared candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winners of the chairmanship and councillorship positions across the state following the June13 local government elections.