The residents, who were mainly dwellers of Ogori/Magongo local government area in an interview with SaharaReporters, faulted the electoral body for applying a “margin of lead principle” to cancel the earlier rescheduled governorship election in their council.
Some residents of Kogi State have accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) of denying them the right to exercise their franchise during last Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The residents, who were mainly dwellers of Ogori/Magongo local government area in an interview with SaharaReporters, faulted the electoral body for applying a “margin of lead principle” to cancel the earlier rescheduled governorship election in their council.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that INEC cancelled the election in 67 polling units in the council and rescheduled them.
Some residents of the area had alleged that voting took place over the night till early Saturday morning, ahead of the official election process despite the absence of INEC officials.
INEC through its Head of Voter Education and Public Enlightenment, Haliru Haruna, had said the commission had commenced an investigation into the matter, adding that the public would be informed about the outcome.
Despite this, INEC still went ahead to declare Usman Ododo of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election, citing a “principle of margin of lead.”
One of residents of the local government who spoke to SaharaReporters described the situation as discriminatory towards the people.
He said, “There are using that (the principle of lead margin) excuse to disenfranchise us; to stop us from exercising our fundamental human rights. In other words, denying us the access to vote. Because in the real sense, that could lead to a lot of denial in the real sense of whosoever won the election. What we are saying is that INEC was biased in its officiating for them to have produced results before the accreditation of the election. It is too bad. That anomaly cut across the state. We are not just speaking for our local government or our own area.”
Another resident added, “We know what they are doing is not right. As a result, INEC should not deny us access to vote. INEC is deliberately disenfranchising us from exercising our fundamental human right.”