The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has been declared winner in 17 local government areas out of the 19 announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Anambra governorship election.
In the result of Anambra West, which was announced by the INEC returning officer, Dr German Anagbogu, the APC got 1,233, PDP got 1,401 while APGA won with 1,918.
The collation has however been adjourned for 40 minutes, after which the final result may be announced.
State returning officer and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi said: “We are going to discuss one of the local governments (Orumba North), then in Ihiala there was no election at all. We will take a break now and come back.”
PDP defeats APC in Stella Oduah’s LGA
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won the Anambra governorship election in Ogbaru LGA.
As of 5:20pm on Sunday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced results in 17 out of the 21 LGAs in the state.
The electoral umpire, at the time, had announced the results of the following LGAs: Orumba, Nnewi North, Njikoka, Onitsha North, Idemili, Ayamelum, Anambra East, Aniocha, Oyi, Awka South, Dunukofia, Ogbaru, Onitsha North, Aguata, Idimili North, Ekwusigo and Nnewi south.
Valenine Ozigbo, the PDP candidate, polled 3,445 votes to defeat Chukwuma Soludo, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who polled 3,051 votes, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 1,178 votes.
Ogbaru, which is the LGA of Stella Oduah, senator representing Anambra north, is PDP’s first win among the LGAs announced so far.
Oduah, who was elected to the senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defected to the APC in August.
Meanwhile, Soludo, who lost Nnewi North LGA to Ifeanyi Ubah, candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), has won 15 out of 17 LGAs.
41 result sheets carted away
Gabriel Othong, the collation officer for Idemili south LGA of Anambra state, says 41 result sheets for some polling units were carted away.
Othong disclosed this on Sunday while submitting results for the area.
He said the result sheets of the affected areas were taken away by the supervisory presiding officer (SPO) posted to the area.
He also said there was no election in Oba ward 1, Oba ward 11 and Akukwu ward, all in Idemili south LGA Area of Anambra.
“One of the SPOs carted 41 result sheets out of the 42 result sheets meant for the 89 polling units in the affected wards,” he was quoted as saying.
“Over 40,000 voters were not able to vote in the affected areas due to the development.”
The collation officer added that election officials were not deployed to some of the polling units due to shooting in some areas.
According to reports, Ebere Obiakor, the agent for the All Progressives Congress (APC) said there was election in the affected areas but the results were not collated.
But Alex Obiogbolu, the collation agent for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), countered Obiakor’s statement, saying there was no election in any of the affected places.
Meanwhile, the result for the top three parties released for Idemili south are as follows: APC: 1,036; APGA: 2,312, and PDP: 2,016.
As of 3pm, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced results for 11 out of the 21 LGAs in the state, and Chukwuma Soludo, APGA candidate, won in 10 of the LGAs.
I signed result under gunpoint – INEC official
The returning officer of Orumba North LGA, Dr. Michael Otu, stunned stakeholders at the Anambra State governorship election collation centre on Sunday when he denounced the result he signed.
He said he did not believe in the result.
He accused the electoral officer that was supposed to work with him of collaborating with some people to scuttle the election results in the area.
He stated this while delivering his report to the State Returning Officer, Prof. Florence Obi, at the ongoing election result collation.
He said there was no election in the entire local government area.
He said a crisis fomented by policemen led to his signing the result under duress.
“I signed a report I didn’t believe in. I signed it under duress. I was teargassed. I was locked in the toilet, until a policeman smuggled me out.
“I could not even go out to ease myself. They were monitoring me up and down. At a point, I saw that my life waS in danger, so, I have to sign the results they prepared.
“I called out to my colleagues to tell them that I was in danger here,” he narrated.
Responding to the allegation, the electoral officer who did not give her name, accused the returning officer of not knowing anything about collating election results.
“This man here has said so many things against me. But I observed that he has no experience in collating election results.
“This man does not know his left from his right. The result is full of mutilation. He does not know the difference between conducting election and and collating results.
Prof. Florence Obi, said that she was told about the crisis in the local government area.
“This is the only local government I had a distress call from and I had to call the commissioner of police and told him that the lives of my staff are in danger,” she said.
As it is, a winner might not emerge from the election today, as there was no results declared for Orumba and Ihiala local government areas.
In the result declared at INEC LG office at Ajalli , the APGA candidate won 4826 votes to take the council. APC got 2692 votes and PDP 1,863 votes.
Election may be declared inconclusive
The results of the election were formally announced at the INEC state collation centre in Awka, Anambra State, on Sunday.
Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has secured the majority of the votes cast in Saturday’s Anambra governorship election.
The results of the election were formally announced at the INEC state collation centre in Awka, Anambra State, on Sunday.
Mr Soludo may, however, not be declared the winner of the election yet due to the technicalities with the figures.
The APGA candidate won in 17 of the 21 local government areas of the state. One local government was won by the PDP candidate (Valentine Ozigbo) while the candidate of the YPP, Ifeanyi Ubah, also won in one local government.
However, the collation officers for two local government areas (Ihiala and Orumba North) said at the INEC collation centre that elections did not hold in their local governments.
While Mr Soludo leads his closest challenger, Mr Ozigbo, with over 45,000 votes, Ihiala local government alone has over 148,000 registered voters.
The election may thus be declared inconclusive to allow for rerun elections in the two affected local governments and other polling units where elections did not hold.
INEC is, however, still reviewing the situation and has not taken a position.
APC rejects result, alleges rigging
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Anambra State, Mr. Basil Ejidike, has called for the cancelation of the yet-to-be-concluded governorship election in the state.
Ejidike, in a statement Sunday night in Awka, accused the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), of rigging the election, in connivance with “corrupt-minded INEC officials”.
He said: “What is happening in Anambra is never an election but big time electoral fraud and malpractice.
“We want the whole world to hear our voice that we will never accept the outcome of the Anambra gubernatorial election.
“The candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the sitting Governor, Willie Obiano, manipulated the whole electoral system and we will stand to resist it.
“Ndi Anambra wants an APC Governor and there’s nothing anyone can do to deny them that opportunity.
“We virtually won in all the local government, but Willie Obiano and Charles Soludo, through instrumentality, corrupt-minded INEC officers, subverted the whole process in favour of APGA.
“We want INEC to cancel the election and fix a date for a fresh election devoid of manipulations and malpractices.”
The Anambra APC Chairman vowed to head to the court, should INEC insist on declaring the APGA candidate winner of the governorship election.
According to him, “But if INEC goes ahead to announce the results, we will definitely challenge the election process at the court of law, up-to Supreme Court. Nobody can intimidate us.”
Responding to the allegation, the chairman of APGA in the state, Nobert Obi, who spoke on phone, described the APC accusation as uncalled for, noting that everyone witnessed a free and fair election.
He said: “I don’t want to talk about the accusation. The accusation is uncalled for as everyone witnessed a free and fair election. I don’t know where they got such information from.”
