Expectations are high that barring any major unexpected surprise, Bala Mohammed candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is all but certain to be declared the winner of Bauchi gubernatorial election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), next Tuesday, when the Commission resumes the collation of the governorship election result in Bauchi State, hitherto ruled as inconclusive. The Bauchi governorship election is a straight fight between incumbent Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former minister, Bala Mohammed of the PDP.
INEC announced the decision to resume collation in a press statement on Friday night after resolving some contentious issues around the result of Tafawa Balewa local government and some polling units in Ningi local government. Among other things, INEC revealed that the number of cancelled votes in four polling units in Ningi LGA was 2,533 and not 25,330 as recorded. On Tafawa Balewa LGA election result, where collation was disrupted by armed gangs, affecting 7 out of 11 registration areas for governorship and 6 out of 11 for state assembly elections, INEC said a committee set up, has found that the results in polling units and registration areas are “available and in safe custody”.
INEC thus decided to resume the resumption and conclusion of the collation of results of the council area for both the governorship and state assembly elections. But the Commission did not state whether by resuming the collation of the results of the March 9 poll, the scheduled supplementary election on March 23 in Bauchi has been cancelled.
Rather, a new collation and returning officer for Tafawa Balewa has been appointed “to continue and conclude the collation process in place of the original collation officer, who withdrew from the exercise citing threats to her life and those of her family members”. The collation officer was Dominion Anosike.
In declaring the election inconclusive, the INEC returning officer, Professor Mohammed Kyari gave the scores of incumbent governor Abubakar as 465,453 votes and Bala Mohammed of PDP as 469,512 votes. Bala was said to have won the Tafawa Balewa Local government election, putting him in an overall lead of his APC counterpart, but the INEC returning officer declared the election inconclusive.
“The margin between the winner and opponent is less than the total number of votes cancelled in some polling units. By law, since the margin of winner is less than the total number of votes cancelled and registered voters in the areas where the votes have been cancelled, this election is hereby declared inconclusive,” he said, adding that his decision was in line with section 26 part 53 of the Electoral Act. With INEC having adopted the result of the Tafawa Balewa local council and amending the result for four polling units in Ningi Local government, it is all but certain that the PDP candidate has won the election.
But the APC Bauchi chapter alleged that the fact-finding Committee sent to the state by INEC to probe the irregularities in the governorship elections of March 9, 2019 denied the APC fair hearing. Alhaji Uba Nana the state Chairman of the party made the allegation at a press conference in Bauchi on Saturday. Nana said the APC rejected in totality, the report of the fact-finding Committee on the disruption of collation process at Tafawa Balewa and the subsequent decision of INEC to reverse its earlier resolution cancelling the entire results of Tafawa Balewa LGA. He said the position taken by INEC is illegal, null and void having regards to the Electoral Act 2010 and INEC Guidelines for 2019 General Elections
“The fact-finding Committee chaired by Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee denied fair hearing to APC as a political party whose agents were not invited during hearing of the facts leading to the cancellation of the Results of Tafawa Balewa LGA. Any decision taken in violation of fair hearing is illegal, null and void,” he said.
According to Nana, the composition of the Committee was also questionable as the Committee Chairman, Festus Okoye Esq is a close ally and former solicitor of Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the PDP. He stressed that justice cannot be done by the Committee because of the conflict of interests of its chairman. Nana He pointed out that the decision of INEC based on the Committee’s Report was already prayed for at the Federal High Court, Bauchi in Suit No. FHC/BAU/CS/18/2019 filed by Bala Mohammed and PDP against INEC. “Unfortunately, the extant decision of INEC reversing the cancellation of Tafawa Balewa Results was earlier sought for but refused by the Court in the said suit at interim stage. Now INEC has granted what was refused by the Court of law in the interest of justice,” he said.
