INEC Urged to Review Enugu Guber Election

The Labour Party Coalition for True Democracy has requested that INEC conduct an audit of the governorship election in Enugu, just as it did in Adamawa.

Peoples Gazette reports that the Labour Party Coalition for True Democracy has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review the Enugu governorship election as it did in Adamawa.

At a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Ken Asogwa, spokesman for the coalition, alleged that the same scenario in Enugu played out in Adamawa but with a different outcome.

Mr Asogwa said what took place in Enugu on March 18 emboldened the Adamawa resident electoral commissioner to attempt to usurp the powers of the returning officer.

Labour Party Coalition charge to INEC

“You may recall that in Enugu, after the collation of 16 local government areas out of the 17 LGAs of the state, the Labour Party candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, was leading with over 11,000 votes. This lead by the Labour Party was in consonance with the results of the other declared elections in the state wherein the Labour Party won two of the three senatorial seats in the state,” stated Mr Asogwa.

The coalition leader added, “LP also won seven out of the eight Rep seats in the state and 14 out of the 24 seats in the State House of Assembly.

“Where then lies the path to victory for the PDP in that election, judging from the established voting pattern?”

Mr Asogwa said, “So, the big question is, how could INEC have turned out over 33,000 votes in Nkanu East LGA that had only about 15,000 accredited voters? The ready answer is that the Electoral Act was literally thrown under the bus by writing results without recourse to the BVAS. One had expected INEC to cancel the results of the polling units in Nkanu East LGA where there were manifest over-voting, in line with S 51 (2) of the Electoral Act.”

He added that at the time of the declaration of the Enugu gubernatorial election results, there were 21,156 people with PVCs yet to vote across the state because elections did not hold in their polling units due to violence.