Four days after the March 18 governorship elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission is yet to call the final results in the two south-eastern states of Abia and Enugu.
Supporters of the candidates have besieged adjourning neighbourhoods of INEC offices in the two states and vowed to remain there till the election results are released. They suspect the delay is a ploy by the electoral body to manipulate the final results.
On Monday, INEC announced it had suspended the collation and declaration of the election results in Abia after hoodlums invaded its collation centre in Obingwa local government area.
Before the suspension of the collation, Alex Otti, governorship candidate of the Labour Party was in pole position after the tally of results from 16 of 17 local government areas of the state. According to results announced by the state returning officer, Nnenna Oti, Mr Otti had won in 10 of the 16 local government areas announced with a total vote of 172,246, while the Okey Ahiwe the PDP candidate polled 78,628 votes to win five local governments.
The difference in the margin between the LP and the PDP candidates is 93,618 votes.
In Enugu, the commission said it was reviewing the governorship results from the two outstanding LGAs of Nsukka and Nkanu East which it said necessitated the suspension of the entire result collation.
The state has 17 local government areas. Before the suspension by Inec, LP’s Chijioke Edeoga and PDP’s Mbah Ndubuisi were leading other candidates like Frank Nweke (Jnr) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and APC’s Uche Nnaji.
– Suspension of collation
Inec’s national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, announced the suspension in a statement on Monday.
“The Commission met today, Monday March 20, 2023 and reviewed the conduct of the governorship and state Assembly elections held nationwide on Saturday March 18, 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,” he said.
“It will be recalled that our office in Obingwa Local Government Area was invaded by thugs yesterday, Sunday March 19, 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.”
– Heightened concern
As a result of Inec’s delay, there is heightened concern of a protest in the states. From Abia to Enugu, supporters of the frontline candidates are calling on the commission to declare their candidates as the winners without further delay.
In Enugu, supporters of Peter Mbah of the PDP have vowed to occupy the state till he is declared winner. In Abia, supporters of Mr Otti are camping eagerly for his declaration as winner.
“This is the second day of our protest, that INEC should declare Peter Mbah as the winner of the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election in Enugu State, having polled a majority of the lawful votes cast,” said Uchenna Igwesi, a former member of House of Representatives and supporter of Enugu’s PDP candidate, according to Vanguard.
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