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INEC Suspends Collation of Governorship Election Results In Enugu, Allegedly Awaits 'Signal' From Abuja

Inec
March 20, 2023

The collation which was supposed to continue Monday morning has been stalled following controversies trailing the result from Nkanu East Local Government Area.
Meanwhile, the INEC officials have reportedly informed party agents and observers that they were awaiting the “decision” of the National Secretariat of INEC, Abuja.

There is growing tension in Enugu State capital after the Independent National Electoral Commission, suspended the results collation of the governorship election in the state.
The collation which was supposed to continue Monday morning has been stalled following controversies trailing the result from Nkanu East Local Government Area.
Meanwhile, the INEC officials have reportedly informed party agents and observers that they were awaiting the “decision” of the National Secretariat of INEC, Abuja.
Some INEC officials told SaharaReporters that the Enugu Resident Electoral Commissioner, and the State Returning Officer disagreed on the way forward.
While the REC is said to be disposed to announcing the results, the Returning Officer felt that the Nkanu East LGA result cannot be accepted since the BVAS (Bimodal Voters Accreditation System) was not used.
He is also reportedly against the over-voting which were some of the issues and objections against the result.
Supporters of the two leading political parties in Enugu State have stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, headquarters, in Enugu, as tension heightened over the collation of the governorship election results.
The Labour Party supporters were the first to storm the commission’s office demanding that the result of the Nkanu East Local Government Area must not be accepted over alleged non-usage of BVAS.
LP maintains that its candidate, Barrister Chijioke Edeoga won the election.
They alleged that the over 30,000 votes scored by the PDP’s Peter Mbah did not emanate from the votes cast at the various polling units.
According to the LP, only about 15,000 votes were cast in the election.

However, reports that a few minutes after, PDP supporters also grouped at the INEC office, insisting that Mbah should be declared winner.

The PDP supporters said Mbah should be announced and that the aggrieved parties should go to court.
At the moment, there appears to be a stalemate, as INEC wants to recalculate the results uploaded on its iREV portal based on the number of accredited voters in the local government.