From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its gubernatorial candidate, Ovie Omo-Agege, have filed a petition with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the collated results of the March 18 governorship election in Delta State, Nigeria.
The APC alleges that the election collation process was conducted without regard to the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The Director of Election and Strategy for the Delta APC campaign council, Mr Godwin Anaughe, endorsed the petition and quoted from Section 64(4a and b) of the Electoral Act, which states that a Collation Officer or Returning Officer must verify and confirm that the number of accredited voters and votes stated on the collated result is correct and consistent with those recorded and transmitted directly from polling units.
According to the petition obtained by newsmen in Asaba, the APC raised questions during the collation exercise about the correctness of the votes stated in the collated results produced from many of the local government areas before the Returning Officer as required under Section 64(6) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The petition disputes the collated results from all polling units in the local government areas of Delta North, Delta South, and Delta Central Senatorial Districts. Anaughe claimed that in these areas, there was a massive bypass of the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and illegal entry of false results.
The APC has the right to contest the correctness of any collated result pursuant to Section 64(6) of the Electoral Act, and the Collation Officer or Returning Officer has a mandatory duty to inquire into the disputed collated result by taking the steps outlined in this section of the Electoral Act.
“It is our contention that in the above LGAs, there was a massive bypass of the BVAS and illegal entry of false results,” Anaughe said.
The INEC has yet to respond to the petition.