Voters and INEC officials during accreditation at Ogbaagbaa, Osun state
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday declared the Kogi State governorship election held on Saturday inconclusive. The decision was rejected by legal experts who described it as “wrong”.
The Returning Officer, Prof Emmanuel Kucha, who is Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, said election could not take place in 91 units in 18 Local Government Areas.
He said the total number of registered voters in the cancelled units – 49,953 – exceeds the margin between the two candidates with the highest votes, which is 41,353.
All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Prince Abubakar Audu polled 240,867 votes. His opponent, Governor Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 199,514.
The affected local governments are Adavi (five units with 2,134 registered voters); Ajaokuta (three with 1,406 registered voters;) Ankpa (nine with 6,021); Bassa (two with 742); Dekina (29 with 17,454); Ibaji (six with 2,665); Ida (one with 310); Igalamela (three with 1,501); Ijumu (one with 705); and Kabba Bunu (four with 1,767).
Others are Koton Karfi (two units with 1,689 registered voters); Lokoja (five with 2,854); Ofu (eight with 4,679); Okehi (one, with 403); Okene (one, with 676); Olamaboro (four, with 2,046); Omala (six with 2,526) and Yagba West (one unit with 375 registered voters).
Kucha relied on Section M, Paragraph 4 on Page 22 of INEC Approved Guidelines and Regulations for the Conduct of the 2015 General Elections.
It says: “Where the margin between the two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling units where elections were cancelled or not held, the Returning Officer will decline to make a return until another poll has taken place and the result incorporated….”
Kucha said: “Applying the provisions of the above guidelines, therefore, the total number of registered voters of the polling units where elections were cancelled or not held is in excess of the margin of win between the two leading candidates.
“Consequently, this election is therefore, inconclusive and I hereby so declare.”
A highly-placed legal expert said INEC was wrong to have branded the election inconclusive, urging the commission to take another look at the decision.
He said: “The commission should take another look at the election. The results so far declared shows that APC was leading by 41,000 votes. INEC has said the supplementary election, which is not necessary, should take place in 91 polling units. The number of registered voters in those units is 49,000. Out of this, 25,000 have PVCs. If all of them vote for PDP, which is unlikely, the result won’t be enough to stop APC’s victory. Therefore, INEC should not have declared the election inconclusive in the first place”.
Prior to the declaration, Audu won in 16 of the 21 councils, namely: Yagba East, Ajaokuta, Ofu, Ida, Kabba Bunu, Yagba West, Adavi, Koton Karfi, Ankpa, Okehi, Ijumun, Olamaboro, Igalamela, Bassa, Lokoja, and Ibaji.
Wada won in five, namely Dekina, where he hails from; Ogori Magongo, Omala, Okene and Mopa-moro.
Total number of registered voters is 1,379,971; while 511,648 were accredited.
Election was cancelled in most of the units due to violence, snatching of ballot boxes and votes exceeding accredited voters (over-voting), according to collation officers.
For instance, in Dekina, where 43,938 valid votes were cast, 17,454 was cancelled out of 46,955 votes cast.
The Collation Officer, Josiah Ocheja, said four units were cancelled in Anyigba due to “serious violence” including ballot box snatching and attack of electoral officers by hoodlums.
He said a female electoral officer fled the attack to a shrine and was rescued by the police.
In Bassa council with 10 wards, election was cancelled in two units for over-voting and card reader malfunctioning. In Igala-Mela council, election was cancelled in three units across two wards.
Four polling units were cancelled in Olamaboro, affecting 2046 voters. In one of the units, the Collation Officer said “some individuals came in the name of party agents but overpowered the polling officers and started voting for other voters on queue.”
Due to snatching of ballot papers, card readers and other materials, six polling units were canceled in Omala LGA with 2,526 registered voters.
In Yagba West, election in a unit with 375 registered voters was cancelled because number of votes cast exceeded those accredited.
Five polling units were cancelled in Adavi due to over-voting. In Ajaokuta council, three polling units were cancelled because of violence.
Other parties that participated in the election polled as follows: Accord 199, Action Alliance (AA) 120, Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD) 472 and Alliance for Democracy (AD) 163.
Others are African Democratic Congress (ADC) 678, African Peoples Alliance (APA) 1,938, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) 584, Citizens Popular Party (CPP) 587 and Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) 457.
The rest are Independent Democrats (ID) 174, KOWA 134, Labour Party (LP) 8,756, National Conscience Party (NCP) 346, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) 282, Peoples for Democratic Change (PDC) 861, Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) 2,973, Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) 231, Social Democratic Party (SDP and United Democratic Party (105).
Reacting to the declaration of the election as inconclusive, Media Assistant to the APC candidate, Abdulmalik Suleiman, said the party (APC) will meet and decide on the next line of action..
“We will abide by the party’s decision”, he said.
Bode Ogunmola, Kogi PDP Publicity Secretary, said the position of the party, saying INEC should go for a complete rerun of the election.
“Our position is that the cancelled election are in 19 local government areas, in our own view, they should go for a complete
rerun. However, INEC has tried for even saying that they should go for a rerun. We as a party, belief that any day, anytime, if there is a free and fair election, PDP will win.
“Anytime they fix for the rerun, maybe after the Bayelsa poll, our advice to INEC is to cross their Ts and dot there is”.
INEC is yet to announce date for the supplementary election in the affected areas.
Source: THE NATION
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