The Labour Party (LP) Coalition for True Democracy on Wednesday, said that what happened in the Adamawa State gubernatorial election can be likened to that of Enugu State but were unfortunately, handled differently.
Spokesperson of the Coalition, Ken Asogwa at a press briefing in Abuja, asserted that the sham that took place in Enugu on 18th March was exactly what emboldened the Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to attempt to usurp the powers of the Adamawa State Returning Officer in such a shameful, disgraceful and shambolic manner.
He recalled that in the Enugu polls, after the collation of 16 LGAs out of the 17 LGAs of the state, the Labour Party candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, was leading with over 11,000 votes.
“This lead by the Labour Party was in consonance with the results of the other declared elections in the state wherein the Labour Party won 2 of the 3 senatorial seats in the State; 7 out of the 8 Rep seats in the State and 14 out of the 24 seats in the State House of Assembly. Where then lies the path to victory for the PDP in that election, judging from the above established voting pattern?” He quarried.
The Spokesperson said it was then surprising how PDP was awarded a whopping 30,000 votes at Nkanu East LGA, the LGA of the PDP candidate.
Explaining further, he noted that “According to the figures from the INEC BVAS, Nkanu East LGA recorded a total number of 15,000 accredited voters on the Election Day. However, when votes were declared, the PDP was allocated a total number of 30,350 votes while a total number of 1,855 was credited to the Labour Party.”
He questioned how INEC could have turned out over 33,000 votes in Nkanu East LGA that had only about 15,000 accredited voters and stated that the ready answer was that the Electoral Act was literally thrown under the bus by writing results without recourse to the BVAS.
According to Asogwa, one had expected the INEC to cancel the results of the polling units in Nkanu East LGA where there were manifest over-voting, in line with S.51 (2) of the Electoral Act which stipulates that where there is established incident of over-voting in any polling unit, the returning officer has an obligation under the law to cancel the elections in those polling units and order a rerun.
“Recall that in the final result as declared by the INEC, the candidate of the PDP purportedly polled a total number of 160,895 votes while the candidate of the Labour Party polled a total of 157,552 votes. In other words, the candidate of the PDP purportedly won by 3,343 votes.
“From the above analysis, it is therefore glaring that the above figure of 21,156 is substantial enough to affect the final outcome of the election, yet INEC curiously rushed to return a winner without conducting a supplementary election as they did in Adamawa.
“In addition, the number of cancelled votes far exceeded the margin of lead between the candidate of the Labour Party and the PDP. Kindly note that the Electoral Act provides that when the number of cancelled votes exceeds the margin of lead, a rerun should be conducted in the affected unit(s) before a return could be made. Notwithstanding these clear provisions, the INEC in Enugu bizarrely returned a winner in an election that was literally inconclusive.” He stated.
Asogwa said Nigerians should understand that, even though it was Enugu today, it could be the turn of another state tomorrow if those involved are allowed to get away with their rascality in Enugu.
“Even as we continue to have implicit faith in the judiciary to right the wrongs perpetrated by INEC in the Enugu Guber election, we must not fail to remind the robbers that the ghost of the electoral robbery incident that took place in Enugu State on March 18 will continue to haunt all the dramatis personae involved in the act, especially the unpatriotic elements in INEC that worked in collusion with desperate politicians to subvert the will of the Enugu people.
“There is a reason why the Enugu electorates chose to vote for Hon. Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party and that choice ought to have been respected by all the actors involved in the Enugu Guber election, especially the INEC.
“While we continue to urge our teeming supporters to continue to toe the part of peace while the judiciary wades in to serve justice in the face of this obvious injustice, we would not fail in our bounden duty to exhort Nigerians to be vigilant as the enemies of state are at it again.” He added.