CHAIRMAN of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, earlier yesterday said the Commission will hold a crucial meeting later in the day (yesterday) to review last Saturday’s governorship poll in Kogi State and come up with a definite date when it will conduct supplementary elections in the 91 polling units where the poll was declared inconclusive by the umpire.
Addressing party representatives, stakeholders and journalists at the Kogi State INEC headquarters, Lokoja, venue of the collation, the Returning Officer for the election, Professor Emmanuel J. Kucha, had declared that the 41,353 votes difference between the two leading parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) is lower than the 49,953 cancelled results spread across 91 polling units in 19 local councils in the state, hence no winner could be declared.
Prince Abubakar Audu contested on the platform of the APC while Idris Wada represented the PDP.
Giving reasons why the results from the 91 units were declared inconclusive, in a telephone chat with The Guardian in Abuja yesterday, INEC Deputy Director in charge of Publicity, Mr. Nick Dazang, explained that cases of over-voting was detected in some of the units.
Dazang confirmed that while there were incidents of violence and ballot box snatching in some of the units, some areas, particularly in Dekina where the Commission had the highest number of polling units, “people tore the ballot papers and result sheets in some areas.”
The spokesman disclosed that INEC will commence a preliminary meeting on Monday (yesterday) and take a decision for the supplementary election to be held in the affected 91 units spread across 19 local councils in the state at a date to be announced by the Commission.
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