INEC Explains Why Supplementary Election Will Not Hold In Tafawa Balewa LGA, Bauchi

Rotimi Oyekanmi 

Supplementary election will not hold in controversial Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State tomorrow, Saturday, March 23.

The Independent National Electoral Commission's Spokesman, Rotimi Oyekanmi said on Friday, adding that the decision was taken due to the ongoing court case.

Rotimi who spoke during Channels TV programme, The Verdict,  explained that supplementary elections will hold in other areas of the state as the commission works towards vacating the court order.

“We are going to conduct an election in Bauchi tomorrow except in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area because of the court action instituted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate,” he said.

Recall that the results of the governorship election from Tafawa Balewa was rejected by the state's Returning Officer, Mohammed Kyari, after collation at the local government collation centre was disrupted by thugs.

According to Dominion Anosike, the collation officer for the local government, the thugs snatched the original result sheet ( Form EC 8C 1) meant for the exercise.

Mrs Anosike said she had collated the results for six of the 11 wards of the local government before the thugs attacked the collation centre and made away with the result sheet. She said she subsequently, with the approval of party agents at the collation centre, used her computer to complete the collation and wrote the election result in another form.

Mr Kyari, however refused to accept the result because, according to him, she did not first seek his approval and that of the state's REC, as stipulated in INEC's guideline for the election before collating the results in another form.

INEC then set up an investigative committee led by Mr Okoye and the committee met with stakeholders in the election to communicate the findings and decision of INEC on the cancelled elections in Tafawa Balewa.

After reviewing the case, the team resolved that since all other processes in the election and collation were followed except the failure of Ms Anosike to write to the REC and the Returning Officer, the result for Tafawa Balewa would be regenerated and reinstated.

To do this, INEC will rely on duplicate result sheet at every level of collation preceding the local government collation i.e the collation at the polling units, wards, and constituent levels.

But the state governor,  Mohammed Abubakar and his party, APC, are challenging INEC's decision to reinstate the results, preferring rather, that  it be cancelled and a supplementary election be held.