The suspended collation of the Abia State governorship election will resume by 4:00 pm on Wednesday at the Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Umuahia.
Bellnewsonline.com reports that Rebecca Jim, INEC’s Head of Voter Education and Publicity, who confirmed this to the press said that the Presiding Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) Professor Nnenna Oti; and the State Administrative Secretary, Clement Oha, who were invited to the INEC headquarters Abuja, over the controversy from the Obingwa results, were on their way back to the state, to complete the process.
Recall that the collation of governorship election results in Abia and Enugu were on Monday, suspended by INEC following allegations of infractions, especially over-voting in some areas.
While fewer than 27,000 voters were accredited in Obingwa by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, rumour has it that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled over 100,000 votes from the council.
The main opposition Labour Party which is already leading with over 92,000 votes from the declared results of 16 out of 17 LGAs in the state, cried foul, alleging that the ‘mystery figure’ was cooked by the ruling party.
While results from 26 LGAs had been formally declared at the INEC Collation Centre, Obingwa result was yet to be presented when the directive from INEC headquarters in Abuja came for the exercise to the halted.
There is tension in Abia State since the controversy started with protests and growing calls among residents for INEC to declare the winner of the contest and not allow the will of the people to be subverted.