APC petitions INEC over Delta governorship election results

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the outcome of last weekend’s governorship election in Delta State.

In a petition signed by its Director of Election and Strategy, Mr. Godwin Anaughe, on Saturday in Asaba, the party alleged that the collation of the results was not in line with the Electoral Act, 2022.

INEC on Monday declared Sheriff Oborevwori of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the Delta State governorship election.

Oborevwori polled 360,234 votes to defeat Ovie Omo-Agege of the APC who scored 240,229 votes in the exercise.

“Following the conduct and announcement of results, the Electoral Act makes provision for the collation of the announced results in order to determine the winner of the election.

The petition read: “Section 64(4) of the Electoral Act provides; a collation officer or returning officer at an election shall collate and announce the result of an election, subject to his or her verification and confirmation that the;

“(A) number of accredited voters stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the number of accredited voters recorded and transmitted directly from polling units under section 47(2) of this Act; and

“(B) The votes stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the votes or results recorded and transmitted directly from polling units under section 60(4) of this Act.

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“The All Progressives Congress in the course of this state collation exercise, has raised questions as to the correctness of the votes stated in the collated results being produced from many of the Local Government Areas before the returning officer as it is contemplated under section 64(6) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which provides:

“Where during the collation of results, there is a dispute regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any polling unit, the collation officer or RETURNING OFFICER shall use the following to determine the correctness of the disputed result-

“(A) The original of the disputed collated results for each of the polling units where the election is disputed;

“(B) The smart card reader (in this case-the BVAS) used for accreditation of the voters in each of polling units where the election is disputed;

(C)Data of accreditation recorded and transmitted directly from each polling unit where the election is disputed as prescribed under section 47(2) of this Act; and

(D)The votes and results of the election are recorded and transmitted directly from each polling unit where the election is disputed under section 60(4) of this Act.

“For the avoidance of doubt, without prejudice to the correctness of any collated result, as may arise from any inquest, the APC has disputed and is still disputing before this Collation Body, the correctness of the collated results from all polling units” in the Local Government Areas of the state.”

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