• LP to challenge presidential election result in court
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has been formally declared winner in Ekiti State.
He won in all 16 local government areas to defeat the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso and 14 others.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Ekiti State Collation Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila Orangun, Osun State, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, said APC polled 201,494 votes, PDP, 89,554, LP, 11,397 votes and NNPP 264 votes.
“Ekiti has 988,923 registered voters, out of this, the number of accredited voters 315,058. Total valid votes, 308,171, the number of rejected votes 6,301 and total votes cast, 314,470. This is the final result of the presidential election in Ekiti State.”
As INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, adjourned the collation of results till 11am today after announcing the result of only Ekiti State, tension has flared across the country even as major gladiator, Tinubu, Obi and Atiku trade accusations and counter-accusations.
Ahead of the resumption of collation and announcement of result, the LP has faulted the process and have vowed to challenge the outcome in court. The party said most of its members were deliberately disenfranchised through varied means across the country but were more discerning in its strongholds.
The party National Secretary, Umar Ibrahim, in a statement, yesterday, said while the party made inroads with high votes in most parts of northern Nigeria, its members were deliberately prevented from voting, chased away violently from polling units, or had ballot papers and boxes destroyed and burnt in other parts of the country.
He specifically called out Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kano, Yobe, and Edo states as top areas where such acts were perpetrated in violation of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Umar said in some places, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff and electoral materials were not deployed to areas that are known to be strongholds of his party or deployed late to frustrate the party supporters, who psychologically got tired of waiting and had to leave the polling units for the fear of the unknown.
“The delay by INEC to upload and announce results, especially where Labour Party, is already known to have taken lead, is also worrisome and we feel it is deliberate to anger our party and our supporters,” he said.
Umar also revealed that intelligence from the fields revealed that across the northern states, electorate identified as Labour Party supporters were tactically denied access to their polling units by some INEC ad-hoc staff who connived with others to confuse the electorate by insisting their polling units are different and sending them to the wrongs ones.
He said this frustrated the electorate and reduced the votes polled by Labour Party, which would have more than doubled if the right things were done.
While calling on INEC to checkmate and call its polling staff to order and also ensure punitive measures in line with the Electoral Act 2022 as amended, called on the party members and supporters to be calm, and remain law-abiding.
SUN NEWS
