The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, has said the continued delay in the announcement of the Saturday’s governorship election results in Abia and Enugu states respectively would put the credibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to question.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Nigerian electoral umpire has suspended the collation and announcement of results of the two states governorship election over allegations of over voting and none use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines in the conduct of elections in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu and Obingwa council area of Abia State.
While in Nkanu East about 15,000 voters were accredited during the Saturday’s elections, the results returned were over 30,000 votes. In Obingwa council, while 23,000 voters were accredited in the election according to BVAS record, but over 72,000 votes were returned.
It had been reported that protests have been going on at the INEC Enugu State headquarters since Monday.
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While the Peoples Democratic Party called on the electoral body to accept results of Nkanu and declare its candidate as winner and governor-elect, the Labour Party called for total cancellation of results where BVAS was not used in the election.
Reacting to the development, the former Anambra governor frowned at the continued delay in releasing the results of both elections held over 48 hours ago, and urged INEC to accelerate action as it reviews the results.
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Obi spoke in a statement issued on Tuesday through the Obi-Datti Media Office, in Abuja.
Obi was quoted as saying, “Having carefully followed the unfolding events relating to the gubernatorial elections in the above two states, let me categorically emphasise the imperative of releasing the gubernatorial election results of Abia and Enugu States immediately.
“I am aware that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said they are reviewing the Collation of the Results in these two States.
“However, I would like to urge them to accelerate action on this, as their continued delay is questioning INEC’s intent and the credibility of the Election.”
Rejecting the unnecessary controversy surrounding the results of the two states governorship election, Obi said, “The Records of the Elections from Polling Units should not be difficult to calculate if the Electoral Officials are committed to the integrity of the Exercise in line with the stipulated Guidelines.”
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