See States Where INEC Has Suspended Collation And Declared Results Inconclusive

The results from the governorship and state assembly election seem to be rounding up gradually as 24 out of the 28 states that partook in the March 18 polls have been declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, Naija News understands that while results from two states, Adamawa and Kebbi have been declared inconclusive, the commision has suspended the collation of results in two states Abia and Enugu as well.

It was gathered that the Adamawa governorship election was declared inconclusive on Monday.

While the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Aishatu Dahiru scored 390, 275 the incumbent, governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, polled 421,524.

However, the Adamawa State Collation Officer, Profesor Muhammed Mele, said the election was inconclusive because the margin of win between the leading two parties was lower than the number of collected PVCs in places where the election did not hold.

Mele said elections would be conducted in the affected areas of the state.

Similarly, it was learnt that the Collation and Returning Officer, for Kebbi State, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu of the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, said there were cancellations in 20 of the 21 Local Government Areas.

He said INEC had no option but to refer to the Electoral Act 2022, Section 51, Sub-sections two and three for guidance.

Sa’idu was reported to have said: “We aggregated the total number of collected PVCs in those polling units and it came to a total of 91,829.

“When we checked the results, the two leading political parties in this contest, APC and PDP, polled 388,258 and 342,980 votes respectively. When we looked at the difference, it stands at 45,278.

“Where the number of votes cast in an election in any polling unit exceeds the number of accredited voters in that polling unit, the presiding officer shall cancel the result of the election in that polling unit.

“Sub-section three of section 51 also states that where the result of an election is cancelled in accordance with sub-section two, there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit.

“By virtue of these provisions and the powers vested in me as the collation and returning officer of the 2023 gubernatorial election in Kebbi State, I, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu of the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, hereby declare the gubernatorial election in Kebbi State inconclusive.”

Meanwhile, the INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye, disclosed on Monday that the commission after a meeting has decided to review results in some parts of Abia and Enugu States thereby suspending the collation of results in those states.

Okoye said results collation for the governorship election in Abia State has been suspended noting that “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.”

And for Enugu State, the INEC official said two local government areas in the state, Nsukka and Nkanu East were suspended due to reports from the state collation official calling for the review of the governorship election in the areas.