TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE OF THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DISTINGUISHED SENATOR JEREMIAH
TIMBUT USENI, ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2019, AT THE PARTY
SECRETARIAT, JOS

Greetings to you all.

1. I salute the people of Plateau for their brave stance for democracy;

2. I do sincerely appreciate your perseverance and commitment to our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party which was demonstrated by your massive votes on
Saturday 9th March, 2019;

3. The aim of this press briefing is to share with you some of our sweet and bitter
experiences in the course of the elections;

4. You already know that INEC has declared the Plateau governorship election as
Inconclusive;

5. As the flag bearer of our party, I did not expect an Inconclusive conclusion;

6. The Plateau PDP State Campaign Council, stakeholders and all supporters of the
PDP worked very hard for an outright win;

7. The results released by INEC showed that PDP maintained very good scores across
all the LGAs;

8. This is inspite of the widespread thumbprinting, vote-buying and outright
intimidation by some Security men who had absolutely no business with the election;

9. In one instance, I personally went out to Tudun Wada Collation Center and freed
voters who were made to lie down on the ground by some Security men;

10. Civil servants and our traditional rulers were threatened to either deliver to APC or lose their jobs or be dethroned;

11. Votes were simply allocated to APC or bought with large sums of money;

12. In some places PDP supporters were not allowed to vote, or their votes were
torn to pieces;

13. Many young people were recruited as thugs without any regards to their future well-being. They even burnt up some ballot boxes!

15. The card readers were not used in many polling units while in some units they were reported even stolen

16. Results were declared without any regard to the choices of the people who voted;

17. Elections have never been this bad in Nigeria in general and in Plateau State in particular;

18. It is no wonder that we are having a re-run for nine local government areas in the State;

19. Gentlemen of the Press, in my last briefing, I promised the people of Plateau that I would stand by them and protect their votes;

20. I also cautioned that I would not accept rigging;

21. Today, I still stand by my words;

22. After due consultation, we have decided to take specific legal steps to address
areas of concern in the last elections;

23. These include, a petition to INEC, and we hope they will look into it as quickly as possible;

24. My candidature is aimed at restoring our lost glory as a people and state;

25. I want to assure the people of Plateau that I am I am still very much in the race, and I will lead in the most responsible manner;

26. Furthermore, I want to assure the People that I will only spend one tenure of four years, because I believe it is not a matter of how long you stay in office but how much you can do within a short time;

27. Therefore, I cannot turn my back now when we are coasting home to victory;

28. The whole election is about the soul of Plateau; its heritage and its People;

29. I therefore call on our stakeholders and supporters to stand taller and even stronger than before as we approach the supplementary election;

30. We caution against the deployment of  Security Personnel that will harrass and intimidate our people at their polling units and collation centres;

31. The Security agencies should remain neutral and stick   to their constitutional roles;

32. I call on our people           not to give room to fear;

42. PLATEAU MUST BE RESTORED!

  Thank you and God bless.