A PARTY agent for the Labour Party (LP) Gowon Attah, claimed he saved over 80 votes for the party’s presidential candidate during the Presidential and National Assembly election held across Nigeria on Saturday, February 25.
The ICIR reporter was at the FRSC Open Ground Polling Unit at the Gwagwalada Area Council, where the incident occurred while election results were being sorted and counted.
An argument ensued because the presidential ballots brought by INEC officials were more than the number that should have been taken to the venue by one. Attah said he would sacrifice a vote belonging to the Labour Party presidential candidate as a ‘void vote’ to correct the error.
Other party agents and the INEC officials were pleased with his decision.
Curious, The ICIR reporter sought to know why Attah took the decision.
He told The ICIR, “During the course of the election, we discovered an error from the INEC officials. They issued (an) extra presidential ballot paper, instead of House of Representatives. It means that somebody was issued three ballot papers, one for the Senate and two for the Presidential, instead of one each for the Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives. The person voted for Labour Party in both presidential ballots. “In the course of counting, we discovered that there was an extra presidential vote and a shortage in the House of Representatives vote.
“Being the agent of the Labour Party that carried the day in this polling unit, instead of us to have one extra vote that would make the votes in this place to be void, I decided to sacrifice one (presidential vote of the LP) to be put in the House of Representatives as a void vote, so that all the votes will tally with (what is in) the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).”
The presidential election result at the polling unit showed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had six votes, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had three, and Labour Party had 87.
The ICIR reported the Labour Party presidential candidate won all the 11 polling units monitored by the organisation in Gwagwalada town.
He defeated the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso, and other contenders for the presidency.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].