INEC declares Taraba, Abia gov polls inconclusive

The governorship election in Taraba State has been declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Explaining why the election is inconclusive, the Returning Officer for the state, Prof. Mohammed Kyari, said that apart of violence and other polls related fraud, the number of cancelled votes were more than the margin between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Also, after long hours of suspense, the Abia State INEC collation and returning officer, Prof. Benjamin Ugwumba, yesterday declared the governorship elections in the state inconclusive.

Prof. Ugwumba, who praised the election exercise as a testimony of the resilience of Nigeria’s electoral process hinged his decision on the high number of cancelled votes, which doubled the difference between the votes polled by the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and his closest rival from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Prof. Kyari announced that the PDP scored 31,7198 votes while the APC got 26,2386 with PDP leading with 54,812 votes. Kyari, however, explained that since the number of cancelled votes, which is about 12,7125 is more than the 54,812 with which the PDP is leading, it therefore implies that there is no clear winner in the election.

However, he said that the election would be conducted only in those areas with the cancelled votes. The affected areas include the entire 165 polling units in Donga Local Government Area, Chanchagi ward in Takum council and some polling units in Wukari council. Elections in some parts of the state were marred by violence, snatching of election materials, destruction of card readers, abduction of INEC staff, among others.

According to Prof. Ugwumba, this result failed to meet the electoral regulations, since Dr. Ikpeazu polled 248, 459 votes against Dr. Otti’s 165,406 votes, which represented a margin of 83,053 votes. “From the figure, it was apparent that the margin of the votes was lower than 179,224, the number of registered voters, where election did not hold or cancelled.

There was therefore no winner,” the collation officer said. Also in the election contested by 11 candidates and characterised by pockets of protests caused  by the earlier cancellation of elections in three local  councils and its subsequently reversal, the All Progressives Congress candidate, Ayim Nyerere polled 10,065 votes to trail behind Ikpeazu and Otti.

The APGA candidate also won in nine out of the I7 local councils against eight local councils won by Ikpeazu, the PDP candidate. Total number of votes cast was 43,0454 of which 8,893 was rejected leaving 43,0461 as total valid votes. Before the declaration of the election results, there was tension in the state following the outcome of the elections, which process and conduct had generated a lot of concern for residents.

There was however heavy security presence in and around Umuahia, the state capital in anticipation of any breakdown of laws and order. Total number of registered voters in the state was 1217632, while the total number of accredited voters was 470900 representing 38,67 percent of voters turn out.