The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Sunday it has suspended electoral processes in Rivers State due to “widespread disruption” of elections on Saturday. “The initial reports suggest that violence occurred in a substantial number of polling units and collation centers,” INEC’s head of information and voter education committee Festus Okoye said. “Staff have been taken hostage and materials including result sheets have either been seized or destroyed by unauthorized persons.”
Fear has gripped residents of oil-rich Port Harcourt city, state headquarters of INEC has been condoned off by dozens of fierce looking soldiers, anti-riots policemen and other complementary security agents who are jointly patrolling the city ahead of the much awaited results of the just concluded governorship and state assembly elections.
Dozens of Nigerian soldiers in armored vehicles encircled a vote counting center in the opposition-held oil-rich southern city of Port Harcourt on Sunday, in the latest flashpoint as violence overshadowed Saturday’s closely-watched regional elections.
International observers expressed concern over the army action in the capital of southern Rivers State, where AFP reporters at the scene said soldiers blocked roads around the building, sparking a standoff with police who initially resisted with teargas but ultimately backed down. The British High Commission in Abuja said it was monitoring the situation closely and urged authorities to allow Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff “to do their job in safety, without intimidation”.
Kwara: Abdulrahman Abdulrazak crushes PDP candidate Atunwa
Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of the All Progressives Congress has been officially declared the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in Kwara State. Abdulrazaq polled a total of 331,546 votes out of a total of 453, 433 votes. The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Abdulrazaq Atunwa polled 114,754 votes. 9994 votes were rejected, the returning officer for the state Prof Sanusi Liman said on Sunday. Abdulrazaq is now expected to succeed Abdulfattah Ahmed as governor of the state on May 29.
Abuja: Kuje council poll declared inconclusive
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the Kuje Area Council chairmanship and councillorship elections inconclusive. It was the second council after Bwari where Saturday’s polls could not be concluded.
INEC’s Returning Officer for the council, Zainab Gbefwi, told newsmen that the election was declared inconclusive due to electoral violence in Rubochi. Gbefwi said that because of the violence, the elections in Rubochi ward and some polling units in Kwaku and Kabi where Card Readers were not fully used had to be cancelled.
She added that INEC materials were destroyed and some adhoc staff injured in the course of the violence that occurred. “At the end of collation, there was no clear winner because the candidate that had the majority votes had one-quarter of two-thirds of the votes cast. But the difference between the candidate with the majority votes and the next candidate is very small as compared to the number of registered voters and votes cancelled,” she said.
The returning officer said that re-run elections would be organised in Kabi, Kasa, and other polling units, where over voting occurred. She said that the date for the re-run would be announced later after consultations with the FCT Resident Electoral Officer.
Suspected thugs set Imo INEC headquarters on fire
Suspected thugs on Sunday afternoon set the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Ngor Opkala Local Council of Imo State on fire. The hoodlums had made consistent attempt to dispossess the officials of the commission electoral materials without success.
Unknown gunmen in fake police uniform had on Saturday stormed a polling unit, shooting sporadically in the air which led to voters and officials of the commission to scamper for safety, creating leeway for the hoodlums to snatch away electoral materials, including result sheets and ballot papers to an unknown location.
As at the time of filing this report, authorities of the INEC in the state could not respond to the confirmation by The Guardian on the official INEC press corps WhatsApp platform, but sources at the scene said the thugs allegedly made their forceful entry to the razed down the office.
As at the time of filing this report, it was unclear the magnitude of materials and equipment lost. The Electoral Officer, collation officer and others have been recalled to the headquarters on Port Harcourt Road, Owerri capital city.
Earlier in the day, suspected hoodlums had attempted to set ablaze the INEC office Mbaitoli Local Government Area of the state. The council, according to sources, has about 144,000 registered voters, about the highest in the country, comparably.
Locals and security personnel promptly stopped the hoodlums, while changing the security architecture of the vicinity. There have been incidences of pockets of snatching of electoral materials at different INEC collation centres even in the presence of security officials.
