Candidates Call For Cancellation After INEC Announces Result

After the Independent National Electoral Commission had announced more results for Saturday’s National Assembly polls across the country  some of the candidates disagreed with  the polls and called for cancellation.

In Bayelsa State, the Social Democratic Party candidate contesting to represent Ogbia Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, demanded a fresh election.

Iworiso-Markson, at a press conference in Yenagoa on Tuesday, said the voting process was characterised by massive irregularities and described the exercise as a charade.

He said, “In Ward 11 unit 7 in my community, the BVAS was already pre-loaded with 158 votes even when no single vote had been cast,” the contended.

Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate in Abia North, MAO Ohuabunwa, called for cancellation of the polls result and a fresh election.

Addressing reporters in Umuahia on Tuesday, Ohuabunwa said the exercise was marred by irregularities.

According to him, elections did not hold in many wards with over 100 units, amounting to more than 60,000 votes, while plans for a re-run had been shelved.

“I cannot see any fairness in what happened in Abia North. INEC is leading us down a road that leads nowhere. I am rejecting the result and am asking that an election be conducted,” he said.

Also, in Sokoto State, the PDP rejected the results, citing alleged disenfranchisement of over 400,000 people.

The party also called on the security agencies, especially the Nigerian Police Force in the state, to immediately arrest suspected hoodlums who attacked polling units in the state.

The PDP chairman in Sokoto, Bello Gonronyo, who addressed newsmen, said, “The just-conducted presidential and parliamentary elections were a clear example of how some people do not wish the state well.

“The fallout of such unprovoked violence and disruption of the electoral process by well-armed, sponsored thugs led to the cancellation of over 300 polling units across Sokoto State, resulting in the disenfranchisement of over 400,000 eligible voters from participating genuinely in the election.”

In Rivers State, the All Progressives Congress also rejected the National Assembly election results for the Rivers East Senatorial District, alleging manipulation of figures.

Speaking on behalf of the party’s National Assembly candidates in Rivers East, Ezemonye Ezekiel-Amadi, the APC candidate for the Ikwerre/Emuohua Federal Constituency, regretted that INEC, which promised to give Nigerians free and fair elections, failed to do so.
But in Kano State, APC’s Senator Kabiru Gaya congratulated Kawu Sumaila of the New Nigeria Peoples Party who beat him to the Kano South Senatorial District seat.

Gaya, who conceded defeat in a statement on Monday in Kano, described Sumaila’s victory as the will of Allah.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Ifeanyi Uchendu, has lost his bid to represent Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency at the National Assembly.

He lost to Chief Ibe Okwara-Osonwa of Labour Party, who got 8,946.

Also in Bayelsa, APC’s Israel Sunny-Goli, representing Brass/Nembe Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State in the House of Representatives, lost his seat to PDP’s Marie Ebikake.

Ebikake got 11,145 votes while Sunny-Goli, who was seeking a second term at the Green Chamber, scored 6, 755 votes.