APC rejects plans by Inec to resume announcement of governorship election results in Rivers and Bauchi states

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) leaders have rejected plans by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) to resume the collation of results of governorship elections in Rivers and Bauchi states ahead of supplementary polls earmarked for March 23.

On March 9, Nigerians went to the polls to elect governors in 29 states but in six states, the results were declared inconclusive and supplementary elections have been planned for March 23. Over the last week, however, Inec said there was no need to have supplementary elections in Bauchi State because the number of cancelled votes there are less than the margin between the two leading candidates.

In Rivers State, Inec has also said that it will resume the announcement of results which were suspended due to a series of irregularities including violence and ballot box snatching. This means that Inec will only hold elections in Benue, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa and Plateau states on March 23.

According to Inec, in Bauchi State, the number of cancelled votes in four polling units in Ningi Local Government was 2,533 and not 25,330 as initially recorded. Inec now plans to announce the winner on Friday with former Federal Capital Territory minister Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party looking set to be declared governor-elect.

However, the APC has rejected both positions, saying Inec was ignoring the reality on the ground. It accused the Inec’s national commissioner in charge of information, Festus Okoye, and the resident electoral commissioner in Rivers State, Obo Effanga, of conniving with the PDP to skew election results against the APC.

APC national publicity secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said:  “It is on record that Wike, through the Rivers State resident electoral commissioner, Obo Effanga, engaged PDP card-carrying members as local government area collation officers to skew the election results. Since the suspension of the electoral process in Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike and Obo Effanga have been doctoring unit results in the Rivers State Government House to favour Wike.”

In addition, the APC accused Governor Wike and the PDP of lying against the security agencies in order to blackmail the federal government. However, the PDP said it would win all the six governorship supplementary elections, adding that the alleged plans of manipulations by the APC would be resisted by the people.