The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has blamed some unseen forces for late arrival of officials and election materials in some polling units for Saturday’s Kogi governorship election.

The state INEC Voter Education and Publicity Officer, Mr Haliru Sule, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Saturday.

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“As an election umpire, INEC made adequate preparations for this off circle governorship election, yet we still experienced some hitches here and there.

“To us these hitches are deliberate sabotage by some unseen forces.

“We didn’t expect the sudden dearth of vehicles that could transport our Adhoc staff and materials to their respective polling units.

“But all the same, we tried our best and over came the challenges, which gave room for smooth and peaceful conduct of the election,” he said.

He added: “We are confident that at the end of the exercise, it would be said that it was free, fair, credible and successful.

“We are appreciative of the efforts of the security operatives at giving our personnel and the electorates adequate security cover for a peaceful and successful election.” (NAN)

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has secured victory at Community School, Obodo, Araimo ward in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State.

The party polled 77 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC), which trailed with 17 votes while Labour Party secured four votes.

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Earlier when he cast his vote at polling unit 012, Ama Imo Community Primary School in Ikeduru LGA, Samuel Anynawu, PDP gubernatorial candidate, said he was hopeful of victory.

He said that if the election was largely peaceful, he would certainly emerge victorious at the end.

He said, “Honestly everything is getting calm. About in seven wards, ballot boxes have been carted away. That does not stop me from winning.

“INEC said that it will not count any votes in any place where there were records of violence. If the election is free and credible, I will win the elections.

“I am not bothered about the snatching of ballots because INEC said that any places where there are incidences of violence would not be counted.”

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Friday, reserved judgment in an appeal brought before it by the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Dr. Umar Ardo challenging the victory of governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State.

The appellate court, after hearing the submissions brought before it by Ardo, his deputy, Amos Yusuf and the SDP, reserved judgment to a date that would be communicated to parties in the matter.

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While Ardo prayed the court through his counsel to allow the appeal and annul the election of Fintiri, among other prayers, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Fintiri, Prof. Kaletapwa Farauta and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who are listed as first to fourth respondents, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.

Ardo is challenging the judgment of the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which dismissed his petition seeking to nullify Fintiri’s election as the governor of Adamawa State.

While delivering judgment, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice T. O. Uloho, dismissed the petition, saying that it was incompetent, defective, incongruous and not properly instituted and that the petitioners were not certain with what they want.

She declared that the petitioners had lumped the ground of corrupt practices and non compliance with the Electoral Act and failed to file written statement of names of witnesses they intended to call.

The tribunal affirmed the election of Fintiri and also awarded the sum of N200,000 in favour of INEC, Fintiri, Kaletapwa and the PDP.

Dissatisfied with the judgment of the tribunal, Ardo approached the appellate court and prayed it to set aside the judgment of the tribunal and enter judgment in his favour.

Officials of the Department of State Services, on Saturday, arrived at the Polling Unit of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Dino Melaye, in Ayetoro-Gbede, Kogi State.

Melaye is one of the governorship candidates vying for the top executive seat in the State.

The Off-Cycle Governorship Election in Kogi witnessed late arrival of INEC officials at polling units in some parts of the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that most places around Lokoja metropolis encountered the late arrival of officials and materials.

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INEC had announced that materials and officials were expected to arrive at their centres/polling units by 6:00 a.m.

Places like Adankolo, Lokongoma and Kpata encountered similar challenges.

Mr. Cornelius Stephen, a civil servant that came all from Kano to vote, expressed disappointment with INEC, which had assured timely distribution of materials and arrival of officials at polling units across Kogi.

“This election is different from what we experienced on Feb. 25 and March 18. You can see that it’s 7:40 a.m. already, yet only security personnel are around here at St Luke Primary School, Adankolo within Lokoja 1 Ward A,” he said.

The officials for the ward, however, arrived at 8:15 a.m. and moved to their various polling units.

Abiola choice, Presiding Officer (PO), said that they came late to St. Luke Primary School, Adankolo, because of late distribution of materials at the RAC Centre in Crowder Memorial College, Lokoja.

She added: “Even after we got the materials from the RAC (Registration Area Centres), there was no vehicle to convey us to the polling units.”

“As you can see, we are trying to set the tables and also paste the voters registers on the walls for the voters to check their names to come forward for accreditation and voting.

“By God’s grace in the few minutes we shall be done with the setting for the accreditation to commence, ” Choice assured.

Again, there were no agents of the 18 participating political parties in some of the polling units.
(NAN)

Voting in the ongoing governorship election has commenced after about three hours delay in Okpoama Ward, Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa.

Okpoama Ward Polling Unit-4 has 17 polling centres and is the electoral ward of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva.

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Recall that accreditation and voting across the ward commenced at about 11am after the initial delay in the sorting and distribution of electoral materials to the 17 polling centres.

Already, people have taken queues to vote for the governorship candidate of their choice in an orderly manner.

The area is calm as security personnel, party agents and INEC officials go about their normal duties.

A community leader, Chief Nathan Sobote, who voted at polling centre 6, Okpo play ground, frowned at the delay in the arrival of voting materials, but commended the peaceful atmosphere in the area.

Imo state governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Athan Achonu, and his wife, Aisha Achonu have cast their votes in the ongoing governorship election in the state.

Achonu, while, speaking shortly after casting his vote at his polling unit in the Omunumo community in the Ehime Mbano local Government Area of Imo State, commended INEC on the conduct of the polls.

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He appealed to INEC to redeem its image by ensuring transparency and credibility throughout the voting process.

Achonu said at first the residents were feeling threatened by the unusual security movement across the community and the state.

He said, “We have never seen such numbers of soldiers and policemen before in our community.

“But we have tried to assure them they are here for their protection and the process,” he added.

Incidences of vote buying have been noticed in some polling units in the ongoing governorship election in Kogi State.

Our correspondent noticed that many voters were discussing how they had been promised 5,000 if they voted for a particular political party.

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This is happening despite the deployment of officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the state to tackle vote buying.

Such interaction was witnessed at a polling unit in Miami, around Adankolo area of the state where an agent of a particular party was seen seriously monitoring and trying to see who the voters voted before effecting payment at a nearby compound.

Also the same situation was witnessed at Angwa Pawa area of Lokoja, where mainly women were called to a corner and given a certain amount even before they went to cast their votes.

An election observer told journalists that one of the agents of a particular party approached him to vote for a party with a promise that he (observer) would be “handsomely rewarded” with N5,000, adding that because he was not wearing his tag as an observer he was taken for a voter.