Allegations and counter allegations have continued to trail last Saturday’s governorship elections in some parts of the country leading to non-release of the results of the exercise.
In Adamawa for instance, controversies continued to dog the outcome of the contest between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Governor Ahmadu Fintri and Senator Aisha Dahiru Amhed (Binani) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The development, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), led to the election being declared inconclusive after the commission cancelled the election in 69 polling units in the state following reported incidents of violence and over-voting.
This is causing some apprehension among supporters of the two parties over the likely outcome of the supplementary poll.
While Fintiri was leading in the number of votes scored with 421,524, Binani trailed with 390,275 votes.
The commission is yet to announce a date for the supplementary poll.
But in the southeast state of Abia, INEC announced Labour Party (LP)’s candidate, Alex Otti, as winner after a fierce tussle around the outcome of the election.
Also, Peter Mbah of the PDP was declared winner in Enugu state.
Fintiri urges calm
Exuding confidence after the election was declared inconclusive, Governor Fintiri said he was sure of victory during the supplementary election in the state.
Speaking Wednesday on the BBC Hausa service, Fintri said: “I have never lost sleep over the inconclusive election declared by INEC, because I am sure that at the end of it all, I will win. I have that belief, God the Almighty will give me victory.
“Even in the 2019 election it happened that way, it was the same thing. The election was declared inconclusive by the INEC, and the margin of the vote between me and my challenger was less than the votes cancelled.
“The margin in 2019 was 32,000 votes then and the votes cancelled were over 40,000. When the inconclusive election was held, out of the 40,000, only 10,000 voted and I got almost 10,000 votes.”
The governor said it was the will of God that he was not going to be announced the winner, hence the declaration of the poll as inconclusive.
Also in a broadcast to people of the state, Fintiri called for calm, saying his re-election was not worth the blood of anybodyHe thanked them for the demonstration of love and supports to him in the midst of the controversy around last Saturday’s election, assuring the will of the people would prevail at the end of the day.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank Almighty Allah and the people of Adamawa state for the demonstration of love and supports they have shown this government in the last election precisely on the 18th March, 2023.
“We have partially won the election, election has been earmarked to be repeated in 69 units. While we await that, we should still be patient with each other, we should be our brothers’ keepers and ensure the election doesn’t come and go with us. My election doesn’t worth anybody’s blood,” he said.
Fintiri further promised to keep Adamawa united in love and peace and also improve on the understanding of the co-existence among the people and close the gap of underdevelopment in the state by bringing true dividends of democracy to all its nooks and crannies.
With the broadcast, Blueprint reports that the palpable tension that erupted in the state over the election is gradually giving way for calm, as people continued with their normal activities with shops, banks and other commercial activities picking up.
We‘re ready – APC
Also speaking, APC spokesman in the state, Mohammad Abdullahi, said the party was ready for the supplementary poll.
“We are now waiting for the INEC to tell us when the election will be held. Because we lodged our complaints about the electoral irregularities perpetrated during the last election, so we want them corrected this time,” Abdullahi said.
LP wins Abia
But in Abia, INEC declared Alex Otti, the LP candidate winner of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.
The Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Professor Nnenna Oti, declared Otti Governor-elect having polled the highest number of votes and satisfied all necessary conditions.
He said Otti scored 175, 467 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chief Okey Ahiwe of the ruling PDP, who had 88,529 votes, while Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young People’s Party (YPP) placed third with 28,972 votes.
The victory came after days of apprehension leading to the suspension of collation of results in the state.
PDP wins Enugu
After series of delay occasioned by a logjam between the LP and PDP over the election outcome, INEC announced Mr Mbah of the PDP as winner of the Enugu state governorship election.
Mbah emerged winner after defeating his closest rival, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga of the LP.
While Mbah polled 160,895 votes to defeat Edeoga who had 157,552 votes as the first runner up.
The All Progressive Grand Alliance(APGA) candidate, Frank Nweke Jr, was the second runner up with 17,983 votes, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Uchenna Nnaji, took the fourth position.
Announcing the results, the Returning Officer, Prof. Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe, said he would announce the results as sent to him from Abuja after the review.
He said the petition for Nsukka was overruled and that petition for Nkanu East was sustained and after review. It was reduced from 35 to 16,956 votes from 35,349.
“The commission has concluded the review of votes in Nsukka and Nkanu East and we are here to conclude.
“We received petition against Nsukka and it was taken to Abuja and it was overruled. So, whatever we got there was right.
“Nkanu East was sustained and after the review was reduced to 16, 956 for PDP, and Labour Party, the votes we had on Monday was 1,855 and after review it came to 1,864,” he said.
Announcing the winner, Prof. Iwe said that Peter Mbah having pulled the highest vote declared the winner and returned as winner
Earlier, as a first measure towards resolving the tussle, the electoral body halted further collation of the governorship election results pending a review of the process of the contentious balloting in parts of the state
Results declared so far
So far, INEC had declared a couple of results in some states across the country.
Those whose results were declared are Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo, PDP), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun, APC), Muhammadu Yahaya (Gombe, APC), Babatunde Sanwo-Olu (Lagos, APC), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe, APC), APC’s Dr Dikko Radda came top in Katsina and Kwara state Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of the APC also won.
Similarly, Abdullahi Sule won in Nasarawa on the APC platform, Pastor Umo Eno of the PDP emerged in Akwa Ibom state, Yusv uf Abba of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) won in Kano, Uba Sani of the APC topped in Kaduna, Bassey Otu won in Cross River, Siminialayi Fubara emerged in Rivers for PDP, Ahmed Aliyu carried the day in Sokoto for APC , Lawal Dauda of the PDP was elected in Zamfara, Ogbu Kefas also came top in Taraba for PDP, while in Jigawa state, Namadi Dammodi of the APC was declared governor-elect.
