Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly elections to March 18, 2023.
A top INEC official in Rivers State who craved anonymity confirmed the development to Channels Television on Wednesday evening.
The electoral umpire, the source added, will soon release an official statement about the postponement.
The postponement is due to the Commission’s inability to promptly commence reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines utilized during the February 25 presidential election to enable their use in the state elections.
INEC was earlier restrained from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies (CTC) issued to candidates who are challenging the outcome of the presidential election.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that there was no winner in the February 25 National Assembly Election in Doguwa and Tudunwada Federal Constituency.
Alhassan Doguwa, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, who contested on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, was initially declared winner of the exercise.
However, the electoral umpire delisted his name from the reps-elect and failed to issue him a certificate of return.
The commission had said he was declared winner of the election under duress.
This followed the arrest of Doguwa in connection with the violence which broke out in the constituency during the collation of results.
At least two people were killed when a secretariat of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) was set ablaze while in the area.
The police had said investigation showed that the ranking lawmaker was involved in the violence.
He was arraigned at a magistrate’s court which remanded him in prison.
But Doguwa was granted a N500 million bail and barred from Saturday’s elections.
At a media briefing on Wednesday, Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, Returning Officer for the election, announced that INEC reviewed and declared Doguwa and Tudun Wada federal constituency election inconclusive.
The returning officer said he was forced to announce the winner of the election under duress.
He said the difference between the two leading candidates was less than the number of the votes cancelled.
He said votes in 13 polling units had been cancelled, noting that a total of 6,917 PVCs were collected in the 13 cancelled polling units which is higher than the total difference of 4,934 votes between the first and the runner up.
He added that supplementary elections would hold in the affected polling units to determine the winner.
