There are indications that the
Independent National Electoral
Commission has been plunged
into confusion, following the
constitutional logjam created by
the death of Abubakar Audu of
the All Progressives Congress,
who was on the verge of winning
Saturday’s governorship election
in Kogi State.
The election was however
declared inconclusive following
cancellation of elections in 91
polling units.
According to results so far
declared by the Returning Officer,
Emmanuel Kucha, Mr. Audu of
the All Progressives Congress
scored 240,867, while Idris Wada
of the Peoples Democratic Party
polled 199,514 votes.
A top official of the electoral
agency told PREMIUM TIMES on
Monday that his commission was
in a ‘deep state state of
confusion’.
“I can tell you that everyone is
confused,” the official said, asking
not to be named because he had
no authority to make that
disclosure to the media.
“We don’t know how to proceed
at this point. We have been
consulting extensively, but we
have been unable to reach any
conclusion.”
“Several meetings have been held
here but no conclusion has been
reached.”
When contacted, the
commission’s Director of Voters’
Education and Publicity, Ozaze
Uzzi, confirmed to PREMIUM
TIMES that the commission was
yet to reach any position
regarding the election.
He said consultations were still
ongoing and the commission
would hold some meetings to
reach a decision.
“We should be able to say
something between 24 and 48
hours,” Mr. Uzzi said.
The returning officer at the election, Mr.
Kucha, had, citing INEC guideline, declared the
election inconclusive, saying the margin of
votes scored between Messrs Audu and Wada
was less than the number of registered voters
in 91 polling units were elections were either
cancelled or did not hold.
Mr. Audu had 41,353 votes more than Mr.
Wada, while the total number of registered
voters in the affected polling units is 49,953.
Nigerian law did not provide for the kind of
political logjam that has developed in Kogi,
where a governorship candidate died before
conclusion of the election.
Legal experts have expressed divergent
opinions on the matter.
Lagos-based constitutional lawyers, Jiti
Ogunye and Festus Keyamo said Mr. Audu’s
running mate, James Faleke, should
automatically be made the APC’s governorship
candidate while the supplementary election in
the affected 91 units continues.
On the hand, Muideen Olagunju, a lawyer,
holds different opinion, asking the Attorney
General of the Federation to approach the
Supreme Court to determine the way out.
He argued that Mr. Faleke could not
automatically continue with the election as the
governorship candidate since there was no
provision in the constitution to that effect.


www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/193815-abubakar-audus-death-inec-confused-over-fate-of-inconclusive-kogi-governorship-poll.html

End Time INEC

End time confusion

They should call jega for rescue


Biased government

INEC must reverse their earlier decision about the election being inconclusive. It was not inconclusive.

The number of registered voters with PVC in the cancelled units is only 25,000. They had no right to use the 49,000 figure which is based on temporary registered voters card.