The State Collation Officer for the governorship election in Enugu State, Prof. Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe, has suspended collation of results emanating from Nkanu East Council of the state, following allegation of non-usage of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the area during the election.
The Collation Officer for the council, Ogbene Nnaemeka, had presented the results of the area with the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Mbah, scoring 30,350 votes to beat his Labour Party (LP), counterpart, Chijioke Edeoga, who got 1,855 votes.
However, the LP agent, Dr. Eugene Edeoga, and that of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ndubuisi Enechionye, as well as others, drew the attention of the Collation Officer and the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Chukwuemeka Chukwu.Edeoga said: “We have serious and fundamental objections to results being announced. Nkanu East did not use BVAS.
“INEC officers claimed the BVAS did not work, and we know what the Electoral Act provides regarding non-usage of BVAS. So, we are bringing this to your notice for your action.”
The APGA agent also said: “In the Community Primary School, Owo, Nkanu East, where the PDP candidate comes from, accredited voters were 200. PDP won all the 200 votes. But that 200 were not enough for them, they changed it to 800 when registered voters are 700.
“These figures were obviously changed at the council’s Collation Centre, because the IReV portal is also showing the huge discrepancies. These things were also replicated in all the polling units in Nkanu East Council. So, look at it again and check if you will accept such results.”
All efforts by agents of the PDP to get the result to be accepted, was unsuccessful as the Collation Officer, Prof. Iwe, suspended the result from the area. So far at press time, results from 12 councils out of 17 have been collated.
