Stephen Adewale
As the polls open this morning in 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states for the governorship election, there are confusion in some of the states following the omission of the names of some candidates.
In Enugu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ayogu Eze has cried out that in spite of an Appeal Court decision restoring him as a candidate in today’s election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refused to comply.
Report from Zamfara State says the name of the APC is missing on the result sheet for the gubernatorial contest while in Abia and Benue, new Commissioners of Police were posted ahead of today’s election.
Senator Ayogu Eze, All Progressive Congress Governorship candidate in Enugu State, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to include his name as directed by an Abuja Appeal Court in the Saturday Governorship elections.
On Friday, briefing journalists in Enugu, Eze alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission had yet to include his name in the race, barely eight hours before the election.
Eze alleged that removing his name from the final INEC list of candidates for governorship for the election a few days before the election was a calculated attempt to punish him and create room for the preferred candidate and party of INEC.
“Even after the Court of Appeal’s Abuja Division overturned the decision of the Federal High Court which formed the basis for INEC’s action, the Commission bluntly refused to add my name to the final list on the official INEC portal 24 hours after the court order was served.
“He wondered why INEC took a seemingly partisan stance on an issue where they would otherwise be impartial.
He claimed the entire plan had been designed to discourage his supporters and deny victory to him.
Eze said his supporters were still confused about whether or not they would participate in the election due to the development, barely eight hours before the election.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach Dr. Emeka Ononamadu, the INEC Residential Electoral Commissioner in Enugu State, failed because his mobile phone was unreachable and he failed to respond to messages sent to him.
INEC omits APC from Zamfara’s results sheets
National Electoral Commission regrets the omission of the All Progressive Congress acronym on the results sheets for Saturday’s governorship elections and the Zamfara State House of Assembly elections.
This is included in a statement signed by the National Secretary of the commission, Mrs. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, and made available on Friday to newsmen in Gusau.
The statement with the INEC / SEC/265/Vol.ll / X reference number dated 8/3/2019 has been circulated to the chairmen of all political parties and other stakeholders in the state.
The commission noted that it also included the party for governorship and state legislative elections on ballot papers, but lamented that the party was not on the outcome sheets.
“However, the commission has just discovered that the party was omitted for the Governorship Result Sheets due to the suddenness of the court order.
“This omission is deeply regretted.
“As a solution, the commission has decided to manually create columns in each of the Result Sheets after the last printed party, ZLP, and insert the APC.
“This does not affect any other information on the Results Sheet,” it explained.
Meanwhile, the state – run resident election commissioner, Dr. Asmau Maikudi, has assured that the commission has completed all arrangements for the early start of state governorship and assembly polls.
Maikudi, who commended stakeholder cooperation in the state, especially security agencies, politicians, and the media, reassured that the umpire would conduct free, fair, credible, and acceptable state elections.
She said all the election materials that were distributed under the supervision of party agents and other stakeholders to all 14 local government areas of the state have reached their destinations without incidence.Benue, Abia get new CPs ahead of today’s election
In Zamfara, the Independent
Meanwhile, a new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Awosola Awotinde, has been posted to Abia State while Mr. Umar Muri replaced Mr. Omolulu Bishi as CP in Benue State ahead of Saturday’s Governorship ans state House of Assembly elections.
The Abia State Police command’s spokesman, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna made the revelation.
Ogbonna told newsmen that Awotinde, who was in Ebonyi, was swapped with the former Abia CP, Mr. Edet Okon, who was also moved to Ebonyi.
He said that the new commissioner assumed duty on Friday morning, after a formal handover.
He said that the posting was done for the purposes of the elections and appealed to Abia residents to give the new police boss the “necessary cooperation.
”The change in Benue was announced by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police overseeing elections in the North Central, Mr. Godwin Nwobodo at a press conference on Friday in Makurdi.
It would be recalled that the former Benue CP spent about six months in charge of the command before his redeployment.
