PDP gov candidate in clear lead after collation in 17 LGAs, set to be declared winner in Enugu

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Peter Mbah, is leading after collation of results of the Saturday’s governorship election from all the 17 local government areas of the state.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the election, Chijioke Edeoga, was leading with a slim margin after collation of results of the elections from eight of the 17 council areas in the state.

But the PDP candidate overtook him after the collation of the nine remaining council areas in the state.

The results of the entire 17 local government areas of the state were announced on Sunday at the State Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Enugu.

Of the 17 local government areas, the PDP candidate won in nine while the LP candidate won in eight of them.

The nine council areas where Mr Mbah won are: Uzo-Uwani, Udi, Ezeagu, Aninri, Nkanu West, Enugu South, Awgu, Enugu East and Nkanu East, where he hails from.

The LP candidate, on his part, won in the following council areas: Igbo-Eze North, Oji River, Igbo-Etiti, Igbo-Eze South, Nsukka, Udenu, Enugu North and Isi-Uzo, where he comes from.

Although the winner of the governorship election has not been declared as of the time of this report, the results from all the council areas tallied by PREMIUM TIMES showed that Mr Mbah, the PDP candidate, has polled a total of 174,289 votes to defeat the LP candidate, who scored 157, 543 to come second.

The difference in the margin between the PDP and the LP candidates is 16,746 votes.

The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Frank Nweke Jr, garnered 18,061 votes to come a distant third while the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election, Uche Nnaji, trails with a total of 14,808 votes.

Collation Officers from all the council areas of the state submitted the results to the Returning Officer for the election and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Umudike, Maduebibisi Iwe.

However, Mr Iwe, a professor and the returning officer, stepped down results from three local government areas following varied allegations of non-use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine and other irregularities.

The three local government areas where results were stepped down for review include Nkanu East, Nsukka and Enugu East.

Rowdy session

There was a rowdy session during the collation when the LP party agent, Eugene Edeoga, demanded the suspension of the collation of the results from Nkanu East, alleging that the BVAS machine was bypassed during the election at the council area.

In the result being opposed by the LP agent, the PDP polled 30,350 votes, while the LP candidate scored 1,855.

“To the best of my knowledge, the commission for this gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections, made a guideline and the guideline says all elections must be conducted using the BVAS. And the guideline that I read said in the event that the BVAS does not work, the election should be postponed to the next day.

“With all due respect, this guideline was totally ignored in the election in this Nkanu East Local Government Area. The electoral officers there claimed that the BVAS was not working and resorted to manual accreditation and voting. So, all the results coming in that local government area were in non-compliance with the guidelines published by this commission that’s supposed to guide the conduct of this election,” Mr Edeoga stated.

Mr Iwe said the point was valid. He said the collation should go on while the petition would be looked into later, but the LP agent disagreed, arguing that the issues were “fundamental” to the entire process.

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Ndubuisi Enechionye, the APGA agent, backed the LP agent’s position, claiming that the PDP changed some votes from 200 to 700 and above in some polling units in the council area.

The returning officer would later step down the result for review.

The PDP agent, who gave his name, simply as Uzo, later opposed the result from Nsukka Local Government Area and demanded that it should be reviewed for irregularities.

The results from Enugu East Local Government Area were also opposed by a party agent, who alleged that there was voter’s intimidation during the exercise in the council area.

The returning officer, however, later collated results from the three council areas, saying they would not be computed until they had been reviewed and all issues raised against them were resolved.

He asked the party agents to submit their objections against the results in writing within the night for consideration and subsequently adjourned the session to Monday by 8 a.m. for continuation

If the results collated across the council areas are not changed after the review, the PDP candidate is expected to be declared winner of the poll.