THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Anambra governorship election inconclusive due to non-election in Ihiala Local Government Area on November 6 and 7.
The Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of University of Calabar Florence Obi explained during the collation of election results in Awka, the state capital, in the early hours on Monday, that it would be unconstitutional to declare the winner when elections did not take place in Ihiala, one of the 21 local government areas in the state.
She noted that INEC did not deploy staff and materials to the local government area due to insecurity, announcing that supplementary election would be held in 326 polling units in Ihiala LGA on Tuesday, November 9.
After the collation of results of 20 local governments, Chukwuma Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won 18, with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) winning one each.
The PDP won Ogbaru Local Government Area while the YPP won Nnewi North. APGA won others, except Ihiala where election did not take place.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and APGA candidate Chukwuma Soludo could win the election with a wide margin.
Meanwhile there was confusion regarding the results of Orumba North Local Government Area.
Michael Otu, who served as the collation officer, said there was no election in the LGA, claiming that he signed the collated results under duress.
Otu accused the INEC electoral officer (EO) Comfort Omorege of not paying the Police assigned to the LGA and conspiring with thugs to manhandle him.
Otu said he was tear-gassed and he almost collapsed.
He alleged there were issues with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the local government area, saying the EO, in collaboration with certain supporting staff of INEC, prevented him from having access to areas with malfunctioning BVAS, cancelled the results from the affected polling units and forced him to key in false figures while his life was threatened.
Omorege, however, denied the allegations against her and said the collation officer “is not composed.”
She noted the collating officer had no experience and did not know the difference between conducting elections and collating results.
Omorege denied withholding the money meant for the Police, conniving with thugs and accused Otu of speaking rudely to her.
The returning officer constituted a panel, which eventually cancelled polling units where irregularities occurred.
The result was declared with APGA winning with 4,787 votes, beating All Progressives Congress (2,672) and PDP (1,847).