Not less than six states governorship elections have been declared inconclusive in the elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Benue, Sokoto, Plateau, Adamawa, Kano and Bauchi were declared inconclusive as a results of various irregularities recorded.
Although the case of Imo was not that of inconclusive, announcement was only suspended due to violence by PDP, AA, AD and RP party agents but later resumed.
In Benue state, INEC said the decision was based on statistics it gave that 121,011 electorates were either not able to vote or election did not hold in their areas.
Making the declaration, the state returning officer, Sebastian Maimako, however, announced that Samuel Ortom of the PDP scored the highest number of votes of 410,576 while his closest rival was Emmanuel Jime of the APC who polled a total number of 329,022 votes.
In Plateau state, INEC state returning electoral officer, Richard Kimbir, the Vice Chancellor of Benue state University explained that the margin between the two major contenders, APC and PDP was in a difference of 44,929 votes.
While APC’s Governor Simon Lalong polled 583,255, his opponent of the PDP Jeremiah Useni garnered 538,326 votes
He said that elections would be re-conducted in 14 out of the 17 local government areas in the state.
In Bauchi, the states returning officer, Mohammed Kyari, declared the results of the gubernatorial election inconclusive because the margin between the two leading arties, PDP and APC was less than the 45,312 cancelled votes.
He, therefore, stated that according to Section 26 part 53 of the Electoral Act, supplementary elections would be held within 21 days in areas where election were not held before a winner would be announced.
But before the making the declaration, Mr Kyari had rejected the votes from Tafawa Balewa local government following violence at the local government collation centre. Tafawa Balewa is a stronghold of the PDP and is one of the three local governments that make up the constituency of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara. From the result announced by collation officer, Dominion Anosike, at the local government collation centre, the PDP had the largest votes with 40,010 followed by the APC with 29,862 votes.
In sokoto state, the election was declared inconclusive because 75, 403 votes were cancelled which were higher than 3, 413 margin difference.
The State’s Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Fatima Muktar, made the declaration on Sunday in Sokoto, stating that 51 Candidates contested the election.
Muktar, who is the Vice Chancellor, Federal University Dutse (FUD), Jigawa, declared that it was based on the consideration of cancelled votes that emanated from 136 polling units in the state.
In adamawa state, the state returning officer, Professor Andrew Haruna, said the inconclusive declaration was necessitated by the margin of votes between the two top candidates which is lesser than total votes voided in about 40 polling units.
The returning officer said there are 40,988 votes that were cancelled in 44 polling units across the state.
“The margin of lead is 32,476; and going by the margin of lead which is backed up by law in the INEC Regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections,” Haruna said.
In Rivers state, INEC suspended the elections based on the level of violence recorded in the state.
