In seven local government areas in Abia State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the rescheduled presidential and national assembly elections.
A new date would be given in due course, according to Mrs. Rebecca Jim, INEC’s Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Abia State, who made the announcement in a statement.
“The proposed election in polling units where election could not happen on Saturday, February 25, 2023, in Abia State, slated for Monday, February 27, 2023, has been postponed,” she said.
“We’ll let you know when we have a new date in due course.
We regret each and every inconvenience.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Clement Oha, the INEC Administration Secretary responsible for Abia State, spoke to media about the proposed election on Sunday in Umuahia, the state capital.
The election, according to him, would take place at several polling places in the local government areas of Aba North, Aba South, Arochukwu, Obingwa, Osisioma, Ohafia, and Umuahia North.
Oha clarified that the new poll was necessary because of a range of violent processes that had inconsistencies.
According to the commission’s wise judgement, there shouldn’t be a winner by default so as to preserve the integrity of the election.
As a result, he had stated that the election had to be held in the impacted polling places on Monday.
Also, there will be a second round of voting in the Anambra West and Anambra East Federal Constituencies since INEC found evidence of excessive voting in two polling places.
At Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State, Dr. Ugochukwu Okafor, the Returning Officer, spoke yesterday in Otuocha.
Okafor pointed out that although 1,113 people were registered to vote at the two impacted polling places, 28,579 votes were actually cast.
According to him, 558 voters were accredited at Voting Unit 007 at Umugalagu, also in Aguleri Ward 2, while 555 voters were accredited at Polling Unit 004 at Umualum Square in Aguleri Ward 2.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) received 13,782 votes, while Mr. Peter Anaekwe of the Labour Party (LP) received 14,847, the speaker said.
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For this district’s House of Representatives seat, Obidigwe is currently serving.
A new date must be set to hold new elections in the two voting units, according to Dr. Okafor, in accordance with INEC rules and the Electoral Act of 2022.
In addition, due to the violence and failed BVAS that marred the elections on Saturday, the INEC yesterday annulled the results from 74 polling places in six local government areas of Kogi.
The LGAs implicated, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), are Okehi, Umala, Ulama-Boro, Ofu, Yagba East, and Ibaji, among many others that met a similar end.
The Okehi Local Government Area was the most severely impacted, and the state government had excavated parts of its highways just days before the election to prevent access by criminal groups.
At the Kogi Collation Centre, the Okehi Collation Officer, Dr. Emeka Oguju, delivered the results to the State Collation Officer, Prof. Wahab Egbewale. He stated that 31 polling units’ results had been invalidated because of thuggery.
In the 31 polling locations across four wards, 12,037 ballots, according to Ogujo, were invalidated because political thugs stole the voting materials.
According to him, political thugs broke into the affected polling places and provoked violence, which disrupted the voting process in the majority of those locations.
Dr. L. Adang, the Umala Local Government Area’s collation officer, reported that 16 wards were victimised by thuggery during the exercise to the State Collation Officer in the Situation Room at the INEC State Office.
In the local polling places that were impacted, he claims 9,558 ballots were invalidated.
Dr. Adamu Wakili, the collation officer for the Olama-Boro Local Government Area, who also presented his results, said that 3,582 votes from five polling places were invalidated on election day due to violence and a malfunctioning BVAS.
We had a problem with two BVAS that couldn’t function because to the remoteness of the community it was carried to and the incompetence of the Presiding Officer, in addition to the actions of political thugs that disrupted the election in our area.
Only five units in that neighbourhood were touched, despite our efforts to see if it could work. We’ve let the REC know about that,” he stated.
Prof. Dauda Tanko, the collation officer for the Ibaji LGA, added that violence in the area caused the results of 11 polling places to be invalidated.
Tanko claimed that political thugs’ actions had an impact on four Registration Areas, albeit he did not indicate how many votes had been affected by the cancellation.
The activities of political thugs and a botched BVAS were cited by NAN as the reason for the annulment of the results from 11 polling units in the Kogi State local government areas of Ofu and Yagba East.
(Nations)
