The collation of the Abia State governorship election results has been ordered to stop immediately by the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC.
Midway through collation on Monday at the INEC office in Umuahia, Chief Clement Oha, the administrative secretary for Abia State, read the directive.
He said that collation had been suspended at the LGA because to allegations of anomalies in some polling places, particularly in Obingwa Local Government Area, where the INEC office had been invaded.
He claims that there won’t be any more results collation at Obingwa until Tuesday, when INEC Commissioners are scheduled to fly in from Abuja to oversee the collation and make a determination regarding what has to be done after assessing the situation on the ground.
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The Presiding Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO, Professor Nnenna Oti had in the course of collation brought in the Administrative Secretary to read the message she said that came from the INEC headquarters Abuja.
She had said that the INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, personally called her and gave her directives on guidelines to follow in ensuring that Abia governorship election results were collated based on the extant guidelines.
Professor Oti thereafter, announced the immediate suspension of collation pending the arrival of the team from Abuja.
She had earlier vowed to the neutral but strictly objective in discharging her duties.
Professor Oti who is also a Pastor with the Redeemed Church, assured that the will of Abia voters would not be subverted under her watch.
” I’m Professor Nnenna Oti from Afikpo, VC of FUTO. The people’s mandate shall stand.
“I have spent all my adult life in pursuit of the ideals of good governance. We shall stand by the these principles.
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” The pastor in me and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I shall do right by God and by man!”
Meanwhile INEC in another statement signed by its Head Voter Education and Information Committee, Festus Okoye, announced suspension of collation of governorship election results in Abia and Enugu States.
INEC in the statement, cited alleged cases of violence, irregularities and invasion of its offices in the affected states as reason for the action.
According to a statement, the commission will review results in the affected LGAs before further action.
But Alex Otti of the Labour Party is already leading in the 12 LGAs so far declared.
Below is a full text of the statement.
“SUSPENSION OF FURTHER COLLATION OF GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION RESULTS IN ABIA AND ENUGU STATES
Below is a full text of the statement entitled ” Suspension of Further Collation of Governorship Election Results in Abia and Enugu”:
“The Commission met today, Monday 20th March 2023 and reviewed the conduct of the Governorship and State Assembly elections held nationwide on Saturday 18th March 2023. Arising from the meeting, the Commission took the decision to suspend forthwith further collation of the Governorship election results in some parts of Abia and Enugu States.
“It will be recalled that our office in Obingwa Local Government Area was invaded by thugs yesterday Sunday 19th March 2023 and our officials held hostage in relation to the collation of results from the Local Government Area. Similarly, reports from Enugu State call for a review of the results for the Governorship election from the two outstanding Local Government Areas of Nsukka and Nkanu East.
“Consequently, the Commission hereby suspends the collation of results in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State and the two outstanding Local Government Areas of Enugu State which are yet to be collated. A review will be undertaken immediately before the process is concluded.
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“We appeal for the understanding and patience of voters, parties and candidates in the affected States.”
Meanwhile, Dr Alex Otti has maintained a comfortable lead in the 16 Local Government Area results so far declared.
He won five LGAs out of 10 that was declared on Sunday, and collected another five out of the six LGAs announced on Monday, thus bringing the total number of LGAs under his kitty to 10.
Young Peoples Party, YPP won in one LGA while PDP has five LGAs.
According to the results of the 16 LGAs declared so far, Otti polled a total of 171,747 votes, while Ahiwe of the PDP trailed behind with 79,477 votes.
In the results declared on Monday, YPP polled 8,839 to win Osisioma LGA the home of its governorship candidate, Enyinnaya Nwafor.
Labour Party came second in Osisioma after polling 7,032 votes while PDP got 4,699 votes.
APC, APGA and ADC scored 504, 292, and 332 respectively.
LP swept Umuahia North the seat of Abia power with 27,668 while APC whose candidate, Chief Ikechi Emenike who hails from the area, came second with 7,225 votes.
PDP got 4,843 votes while APGA and ADC polled 1,816 and 457 respectively.
Similarly, LP cleared Aba South with 22,014 votes while PDP crawled behind with 3,348 votes; and APGA, 1,762 votes.
The Labour Party continued its winning spree at Aba North where it polled 20,974 votes while the ruling PDP managed to get away with only 4,146.
YPP scored 2,296; while APGA got 1,404 votes.
LP also swept Ohafia LGA with 11,848 votes against PDP’s 4, 128 votes.
APC and APGA got 1,354 and 945 votes respectively.
The Labour Party still cleared Umuahia South with 16,187 votes while PDP got 5,464 votes.
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