Supplementary elections in Abia, Imo and Taraba states adjudged peaceful

The re-run elections held in 11 states across Nigeria have ended and were adjudged peaceful, but with low turnout of voters.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the governorship and House of Assembly elections in Abia, Imo, Taraba, Delta and Kogi States amongst others. The April 11 elections in some local councils in the states were declared inconclusive.

Results of the elections are being expected.

In Imo State, officials of INEC were arrested for thumb-printing ballot papers in the governorship re-run election.

The persons were arrested at Omuma Primary School in Oru East Local Government.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Imo, Dr. Gabiral Ada, confirmed the arrest.

He said that the officials were already in Police custody.

The re-run was between Governor Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP.

Before INEC’s decision on April 12, the incumbent governor and the APC candidate was leading.

In Abia State, voting in several local government areas in the governorship re-run election ended peacefully.

Election was held in all the areas earlier listed by INEC for the re-run election except in Umunneochi Local Government Area.

INEC had erroneously scheduled election there, which was not supposed to take place in the first instance because the Form, EC40G, was not filled which indicated that there was no problem in the area.

The supplementary election was between Okezie Ikpeazu of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Taraba State governorship re-run was also said to been concluded peacefully.

It was between the candidate of the PDP, Darius Ishaku and that of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Aisha Alhassan.

After collating the results from 16 out of the 17 local government areas of the state in the April 11 governorship election, the Taraba State Returning Officer for the governorship election, Muhammadu Kyari, declared the election inconclusive.

He said that the decision was taken because the number of cancelled votes was above the gap between the PDP candidate who came first and the APC candidate who came second.

Before the election was declared inconclusive, Mr Ishaku had polled 317, 198 while Senator Aisha had 262, 383 votes.

The elections were held in 10 local government areas of Bali Zing, Takum, Yorro, Donga, Wukari, Ussa, Karim Lamido, Kurmi and Jalingo.

The exercise held in 159 polling units with a potential 127,125 registered voters expected to exercise their franchise.

In Ekti State, There was a low turnout of voters in Ilejemeje Constituency in Ekiti State, where supplementary House of Assembly elections held in 20 polling units.

Few voters were at polling units for accreditation earlier in the day.

The same scenario played out at Polling Unit 007 Imose-Ise, Owakuta Polling Unit 003 and Ise Polling Unit 006.

INEC had deployed three National Commissioners and three Resident Electoral Commissioners to beef up the human capacity of the commission for the polls. The electoral body had assured Nigerians that election would be peaceful, free and fair.

Security was also beefed up in the three states where the supplementary governorship election was held.

To ensure adequate policing of the election, as requested by INEC, the Police restricted vehicular movement from 8:00am to 5:00pm in the areas where the elections held.

The Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, issued the restriction order on Friday.

“This restriction of vehicular movements order affects movements in and out of the areas where the rerun elections are to take place, except for ambulances, fire service trucks and others on essential duties,” the police said in a statement.

Credit: Channels