THE candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State Siminalaye Fubara has taken the lead in results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from the March 18 governorhip election.
Fubara has won all the nine Local Government Areas collated and announced so far.
Having won nine out of the 23 LGAs in the state, the PDP candidate has won one-third of the ballot already.
He is leading Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party(SDP), Dumo Lulu-Briggs of the Accord and Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party(LP) — the candidates of the frontline political parties in the state.
The nine LGAs announced so far are Tai, Etche, Gokana, Khana, Eleme, Ogu/Bolo, Opobo/Nkoro, Ikwerre, and Oyigbo.
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have both won four local government areas out of eight LGAs announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Enugu State.
According to the results announced so far by INEC, PDP won Aninri, Udi, Ezeagu and Uzo-Uwani LGAs while LP won Oji-River, Igboeze North, Igbo Etiti and Isi-uzo.
In Aninri LGA, PDP won with 6520 votes while Labour Party scored 3431 votes.
In Udi the PDP polled 13,633 against Labour Party’s 10,109.
Labour Party scored over 12,518 to win Isi-uzo while PDP polled 6,381 votes.
Labour Party also won in Igbo Etiti with 11,941 votes while PDP trailed with 8959 votes.
In total, Labour Party is slightly leading with 66,907 against PDP’s 66,471.
Announcement of results at the Enugu INEC office has been suspended till 3:00 pm as officials have gone for break to return later,with nine LGA’s to go.
THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 1.2 million pills of tramadol at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
The NDLEA also seized a consignment of heroin at the airport.
The anti-narcotics agency said its operatives at the airport disrupted the activities of a drug syndicate that operates between Nigeria, East Africa, and Europe, with the arrest of two members of the cartel.
NDLEA said that over 1.2 million pills of opioids were seized in two interdiction operations in Kogi and Gombe by its operatives.
In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, March 19, the agency said a member of the drug syndicate, Ejezie Vitus Ifeanyi, was nabbed during the screening of inward passengers on an Ethiopian Airline flight from Malawi via Addis Ababa at the arrival hall.
“When a search was conducted on him, it was discovered that one of his two bags has a false bottom concealment.
“During preliminary interview of the suspect, he confessed that a member of the syndicate was waiting at the airport car park to pick him up.
“An immediate follow-up operation led to the arrest of Chukwu Franco Bright, who was waiting in a grey colour Mercedes Benz C180 coupe, marked EKY 973 GQ, to receive the drug consignment,” the Agency stated.
Chukwu Franco Bright Photo credit: NDLEA
The NDLEA said that after his arrest, a proper search of the bag was conducted before the two suspects leading to the recovery of 3.00 kilograms of heroin.
It added that findings reveal the drug syndicate networks between Nigeria, Malawi, and Mozambique in East Africa and Europe.
“While Chukwu, who lives in Lagos, is responsible for the recruitment and coordination of the activities of mules on behalf of other members of the cartel based in Mozambique and Malawi, another set operates from the South-Eastern part of Nigeria,” the Agency added.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives at the SAHCO export shed of the MMIA on Wednesday, March 15, intercepted a jerrycan of palm oil going to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The agency said that at the point of examination, it was discovered that 600 grams of Cannabis Sativa were concealed inside the jerrycan of palm oil. A suspect, Tunde Ogunbowale, who presented the consignment for export to Dubai, was immediately arrested.
According to the NDLEA, an attempt to export 2.7kg of cannabis packaged as part of dried onions to Dubai through a postal service firm was frustrated by NDLEA officers attached to the courier company, who seized a carton filled with colourful sachets of dried onions used to conceal the illicit consignment.
OYO State governor And Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Seyi Makinde has taken the lead according to results announced from the March 18 governorhip election in the state.
Makinde is leading the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)Teslim Folarin by wide margin.
From the 16 results that have been announced, Makinde has won in 15 LGAs, while the APC won in one local government.
The PDP candidate is reportedly leading 281,522 votes, ahead of APC’s 128,971.
The collation of results will resume shortly for the announcement of the remaining 17 LGAs.
A -35-year-old has thwarted the sixth-term dream of Speaker of the Yobe State House of Assembly, Ahmed Mirwa Lawan.
Lawan, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), lost to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lawan Musa.
They both contested for Nguru II Constituency.
The Speaker has represented the constituency since 2003.
Announcing the result, the Returning Officer Habib Muhammad, a doctor, said Musa polled 6,648 votes to defeat the Speaker, who got 6,466 votes.
According to the returning officer, other candidates in the poll, including those of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), got 30, 14, and 23 votes, respectively.
Unlike the Yobe Speaker, who lost his re-election, The ICIR reported how the Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker secured a sixth term.
THE Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has won his Agege 1 State Constituency for the sixth term.
Announcing the result of the governorship and state assembly election held on March 18, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returning officer for the Agege Constituency election, Lukman Adeniji, a doctor, said on Sunday, March 19, at the Orile Agege collation centre that Obasa got 17, 214 votes to defeat his opponents, including Raheem Alani of Labour Party (LP) who came second with 3,933 votes.
Eight political parties fielded candidates in the House of Assembly election in the constituency, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kafayat Biobaku, who secured 62 votes and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), with 1,609 votes.
A former Chairman of Agege Local Government, Jubreel Abdulkareem of the APC, won the Agege Constituency 2 Assembly seat with 15,676 votes to beat Labour Party and PDP candidates who won 7,159 and 1,598, respectively.
Meanwhile, former Nollywood star Desmond Elliot was re-elected for the third term at the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Elliot has been representing the Surulere Constituency since 2015 as a member of the ruling APC in the state.
He won Saturday’s March 18 poll with 17,837 votes, trailed by the LP candidate Adebayo Bode garnered 7,822 votes.
The PDP’s Thompson Sulaimon Abolaji came third with 1,045 votes.
The ICIR reported how the election went on in the state on Saturday, including its reports on how the LP’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour, lost his polling unit to the incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and how Sanwo-Olu almost cleared all the votes in his (Sanwo-Olu’s) polling unit.
TENSION and anxiety have filled the air across 28 states and 993 state House of Assembly constituencies as Nigerians, candidates and electoral observers anticipate the Saturday, March 18 governorship and House of Assembly election results.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced the electronic transmission of both the gubernatorial and Assembly results to its results viewing portal (IREV), and voters are anxiously expecting the commission to make the results public.
The 28 governorship elections were held in Abia, Bauchi, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Borno, Delta, River, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun Kaduna, Plateau, Oyo, Zamfara, Yobe, Sokoto, Adamawa, Taraba, Kano, JIgawa, Gombe, Enugu, Katsina, Ebonyi and Kebbi states.
Eleven governors are seeking reelection, while 17 others have exhausted their limit of two terms, having been sworn in on May 29, 2015.
The governors bidding for a second term are Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Babajide Sanwoolu of Lagos State, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, Muhammad Inuwa of Gombe State, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State and Babagana Zulum of Borno State.
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Lagos state chapter, has expressed concern on the violence that reportedly occurred during the gubernatorial and Assembly elections held on Saturday, March 18.
The party’s publicity secretary, Hakeem Amode, condemned the act, describing it as “appalling”, and stating that it resulted in the death of some individuals.
According to the PDP, the violence was witnessed by party agents and members in several areas of the state, including Apapa, Ajegunle, Okota, Isolo, and Oshodi.
The alleged acts of violence were contrary, the party claimed, to the democratic norms expected in a metropolitan state like Lagos.
The PDP alleged that the hoodlums responsible for the violence were hired by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), stating that what transpired in Lagos state on election day was not an election but “a mockery of democracy.”
It lamented that eligible voters were not only intimidated but also harassed and humiliated, and there were reports of killings in some areas of the state.
The PDP claimed that the election was “a charade” and that it would be surprising if the APC’s candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was declared the winner when people were reportedly prevented from voting in opposition party strongholds.
The PDP called for the protection of democracy in the state and emphasized that no one should be allowed to truncate the democratic process.
It believed that democracy must be protected at this time, and argued that what was witnessed in Lagos state on election day should not be allowed to continue.
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has apprehended over 65 persons allegedly for vote-buying and inducement across 28 states during the governorship and House of Assembly elections that held on Saturday, March 18.
A statement issued on the same day signed by the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said that the commission’s operatives of the Kaduna zonal command on election monitoring duty nabbed 13 suspects.
It stated that the teams monitoring the polls in the Port Harcourt Zone also arrested a total of 12 persons for various offences bordering on inducing voters with money to vote their preferred candidates.
The statement also mentioned that four vote buyers were arrested in Calabar.
It further disclosed that 13 suspects comprising 10 males and three females were arrested in Kaduna State.
The statement read, “They were apprehended by operatives working on intelligence, or chanced upon them during the monitoring exercise. A suspect allegedly involved in vote buying was nabbed at School Road, Unguwan Rimi Kaduna. The suspect, who initially resisted arrest, is however in custody pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
It also said that officers of the commission caught Buhari Muhammed in Polling Unit 002, Dogara Yaro Dagari area, with voter coupons, which he confessed would be used to trace and pay those who voted for his party.
The officers of the commission as well apprehended the Woman Leader of a political party, Esther Edem, and Edet Etim and Asanwana Eyo for alleged vote buying in Calabar.
According to the statement, “The Woman Leader, who had a list of suspected voters, their account numbers and thousands of naira in cash, was apprehended inside an uncompleted building beside her ward in Calabar South, while Etim and Eyo were arrested at Ward 12, Unit 11, at Kings Memorial School by Inyang Street, Abasi Obori, Calabar South.
“The duo of Etim and Eyo had with them their own lists and money they allegedly used in buying vote.”
The Gombe Zonal Command of the commission also recorded the arrest of 10 persons for alleged voter inducement.
Investigation by the EFCC revealed that the mode of operation of the suspects was through cash, transfer, coupons and sending recharge cards to eligible voters in order to induce them to vote for their candidates.
THE Labour Party (LP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel election results from polling units where violence, voter harassment and intimidation were recorded.
The party made the demand in a statement issued on Saturday, March 18.
LP national chairman Julius Abure described the election as a “rape of democracy” supervised by INEC.
“It was a sham riddled with thuggery, violence and suppression of voters,” he said.
According to Abure, people were prevented from voting for their preferred candidates “especially when they perceive you support the opposition party”.
He highlighted that there were also incidences of ballot snatching and increased vote buying.
The LP national chairman pointed out that different forms of electoral violence were recorded in Rivers, Lagos, Enugu, Edo and Delta.
“The Rivers State government used the state officials to harass voters. In Enugu, one of our supporters was shot and thugs invaded the entire Enugu North senatorial zone. In Lagos, the APC-sponsored thugs invaded polling units where our candidate has huge supporters.
“In Edo State, the thugs had a free day, unleashing maximum violence. It is very chaotic across the nation and it is deplorable.
“There was also a high level of voter apathy because people lost faith in the electoral process. They sincerely believe that it was not worth it after what happened on February 25, where the mandate given to the LP was stolen.
“People believe that their votes will not count anymore. So INEC has succeeded in mismanaging all the gains we have made in the electoral reforms,” he said.
