An electoral blunder was committed in Abia North during the 2019 Senatorial District Election by an induced and unprofessional Dr. Charles Anumudu being the known culprit.
Rule 33 (e) of the INEC regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections 2019 states thus;
“Where the margin of lead between the two leading candidates in an election is not in excess of the total number of voters registered in polling units where elections are not held or voided in line with section 26 and 53 of the electoral act, the returning officer shall decline to make a return until polls have taken place in the affected polling units and the results collated into the relevant forms for the declaration and returns”.
The final result of the contestants in the Abia North Senatorial Election declared by INEC shows that the Margin of Lead is 10,400 while the Cancelled votes is 38,526.
How come INEC issued a certificate of return whereas INEC rule clearly prohibits the returning officer from declaring a winner in such a scenario?
KEY POINTS:
1. Arochukwu LGA where PDP duly scored more than 21,000 votes from polling units to wards collation was cancelled outrightly with impunity whereas no incident form was provided to that effect.
2. PDP was leading with more than 8,000 votes from Nkporo but the result was cancelled illegally too!
3. The inflated figures from Bende did not tally with the results gotten from polling units and were not collated at the ward levels but were hijacked straight to the LGA collation where they harassed, intimidated and chased away PDP agents before carrying out their nefarious act.
4. The areas where election didn’t hold in Uturu amounted to more than 10,000 voters.
5. INEC form EC 40G was never made available nor issued in accordance with the guidelines but certificate of return was presented.
With all these verifiable facts, the election petition tribunal and the Nigerian Judiciary should be set to restore the stolen mandate of Abia North Senatorial District.
JUSTICE MUST PREVAIL
Comrade Chigozie Daniel
writing from Aguogba land.
