Former Minister of Information and Labour Party senatorial candidate, Labaran Maku has rejected the outcome of Saturday’s Nasarawa North Senatorial District by-election, calling for the cancellation of the poll and demanding a fresh election over what he described as widespread irregularities and the deliberate subversion of electoral laws by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Maku made the declaration on Sunday during a press briefing at his country home in Wakama, Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area, a day after INEC declared the All Progressives Congress candidate, Halilu Danladi Envu-Alanza, winner of the contest. The returning officer, Professor Aminu Ali, had announced that Envu-Alanza polled 45,362 votes to defeat Maku, who garnered 12,931 votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party’s Emmanuel David Ombugadu came third with 11,570 votes, while the African Democratic Congress candidate polled 1,496 votes. The by-election was held to fill the senatorial seat left vacant by the death of Senator Godiya Akwashiki.

In a litany of allegations, Maku accused INEC of allowing the Nasarawa State Government to effectively partner with the electoral umpire in the conduct of the poll. He claimed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines were deliberately manipulated or loaded with insufficient data across multiple polling units, ensuring that the devices failed after an hour of use and disenfranchising large numbers of his supporters in his strongholds. He alleged that elections did not take place at all in most areas of Alizaga, Umme Ward and Alushi Ward in Nasarawa Eggon LGA, and that ballot papers were thumb-printed and smuggled into collation centres. He also cited cases of ballot snatching in Ningo-Bohar and manipulation of figures in Agyaga, Ningo-Bohar and Gudi polling units in Akwanga LGA. In Wamba LGA, he alleged widespread thumb-printing in Mama and other polling units.

Maku noted that the Returning Officer failed to address any of the fraud and manipulation concerns raised by Labour Party agents during the collation process, and he called on the federal government to launch an immediate investigation into INEC’s conduct. “This matter calls for proper investigation because this is a national embarrassment,” he said. Labour Party agents had earlier staged a walkout at the senatorial collation centre at the College of Education in Akwanga in protest over the collation process.

The APC’s state publicity secretary, Augustine Ogaba, dismissed the allegations as political grandstanding, arguing that Maku’s declining popularity in the senatorial zone rather than any manipulation was responsible for his poor showing. Governor Abdullahi Sule, who voted on Saturday and described the process as one of the smoothest elections he had witnessed in years, had also earlier in the week flatly denied pre-election allegations from Maku that the state government had identified nine wards in Nasarawa Eggon for manipulation.

The Nasarawa State Government, through its spokesman Peter Ahemba, described those earlier claims as baseless, malicious and politically motivated, and challenged Maku to present evidence to INEC and security agencies rather than to the media.

The by-election result hands the APC a firm grip on the Nasarawa North senatorial seat and represents a significant setback for Maku, who has previously served as a federal minister and deputy governor of the state but has struggled to convert his profile into electoral success in recent years.