Anambra Guber Poll: APGA Wins 18 Local Councils, PDP, YPP Take One Each
- No election in Ihiala LGA – Collation Officer
Former governor of Central Bank and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has secured majority of results declared in the votes cast in Saturday’s Anambra State governorship election. Soludo was, however, not declared the winner of the election yet due to the suspension of election in Ihiala Local Government Area.
The results of the election were formally announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the state collation centre in Awka, yesterday.
The APGA candidate won in 18 of the 21 local government areas of the state. One local government was won by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Valentine Ozigbo, while the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Ifeanyi Ubah, also won in one local government.
However, the collation officer for Ihiala said at the INEC collation centre that elections did not hold in their local council.
While Soludo leads his closest challenger, Ozigbo, with over 52,000 votes, Ihiala local government alone has over 148,000 registered voters.
At exactly 12: 15a.m. this morning, the election was thus declared inconclusive to allow for rerun elections in the outstanding local government where elections did not hold.
INEC announced postponement of the election in Ihiala following alleged irregularities discovered in most communities in the council. The announcement was made during collation yesterday by the officer in charge, Ahmadu Umar.
The election has been rescheduled to hold on Tuesday, November 9, as Umar warned troublemakers to steer clear of all venues where the election will hold in the council.
According to Umar, there were 148,407 registered voters in the council, yet there was no election in the council area on Saturday due to activities of some politicians who tried to rig the election.
Anambra Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, had alleged that a politician in the area and his group had tried to rig the election. He noted that some of the hoodlums have been arrested by security agents in the area.
INEC collation officer for Orumba North, Dr Michael Otu, a lecturer of Commercial Law at the University of Calabar, said elections did not hold. He stunned stakeholders at the collation centre when he denounced the result he signed.
He said he did not believe in the result. He accused the electoral officer that was supposed to work with him of collaborating with some people to scuttle the election results in the area.
Addressing the Returning Officer, Prof. Florence Obi, at the centre, Otu described his experience as very pathetic, thanking God for being alive.
“To be very frank, I want to categorically and unequivocally tell you that there was no election in the best of my knowledge and with the evidence I am going to buttress herein,” he said.
According to him, the total registered voters in 18 registration areas is 93,608. A drama ensued when he stated that though he collated the figures, he didn’t believe in it because he signed the results under duress.
“I was tear-gassed. I was locked in the toilet, until a policeman smuggled me out. I could not even go out to ease myself. They were monitoring me up and down. At a point, I saw that my life was in danger, so, I have to sign the results they prepared.
“93,608 is what we collated, although I signed this document under duress, I don’t believe in it. It is not my will,” he added.
In addition to signing the result under duress, the collation officer also cited security threats and alleged violence as reasons why election did not hold in his domain.
Responding to the allegation, the electoral officer who did not give her name, accused the returning officer of not knowing anything about collating election results.
“This man here has said so many things against me. But I observed that he has no experience in collating election results. This man does not know his left from his right. The result is full of mutilation. He does not know the difference between conducting election and collating results.”
Prof. Florence Obi said she was told about the crisis in the local government area. “This is the only local government I had a distress call from and I had to call the commissioner of police and told him that the lives of my staff are in danger,” she said.
Earlier, a Supervisory Presiding Officer reportedly carted away 41 results sheets. The Returning Officer in Idemili South Local Government Area, Dr Gabriel Othong, made this known while presenting results at the collation centre.
He said the whereabouts of the INEC official and result sheets were unknown, adding that 41 of the 42 result sheets for 89 polling units were “carted away.”