Victor EzejaLabour Party (LP) candidate in the Enugu State governorship election, Barr Chijioke Edeoga, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to outrightly cancel the results generated from Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state over alleged non-usage of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) among other irregularities.
In a petition addressed to INEC, Edeoga said the non-usage of BVAS rendered the results from Nkanu East invalid.
He said the electoral guideline on the mandatory use of BVAs in elections was not complied with.
He stated that the total number of results collated by the Local Government Collation Officer is at variance with the results uploaded to the INEC IREV portal.
He stated that as contained in the IREV, the total votes purportedly cast in all the 14 Wards in Nkanu East Local Government was about 15,000 but the total result submitted is 32, 105.
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Part of the statement read: “The just concluded Enugu State Governorship election is fraught with serial irregularities and fundamental flaws in the conduct of the Governorship election held on 18th March 2023, particularly concerning Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State.
“We humbly wish to bring these irregularities to the attention of the Returning Officer for appropriate action as provided in the Electoral Act of 2022.
“The Electoral Act and guidelines made pursuant thereto provide that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is to be used for the conduct of the Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Elections nationwide. This is a mandatory requirement and failure to comply with this requirement renders any result of such an election invalid.
“The Commission through several public service announcements reiterated the centrality of the use of BVAS in the accreditation of voters through their permanent voter’s cards and the transmission of the results directly from the polling units to the INEC portal.
“The provisions of the Act are very clear and the consequence of such violations is the cancellation of the result.
“We note with dismay that this mandatory requirement with respect to the provisions of the Act, the results collated from Nkanu East Local Government, did not comply with the provisions of the Act.
“They are completely at variance with the provisions of the Electoral Acts and Guidelines.
“For example in several polling units across several Wards in Nkanu East Local Government, the results collated by the Local Government Collation Officer are at variance with the results uploaded to the INEC IREV portal.
“As contained in the IREV, the total votes purportedly cast in all the 14 Wards in Nkanu East Local Government was 20, 896 but the total result submitted is 32, 105 (PDP -30,050, LP-I,855).”
He said that the “discrepancies are a result of non-usage of BVAS mandatorily required by the Electoral Act and the guidelines of the electoral body which led to the fraudulent allocation of votes to PDP by the officials appointed by INEC to conduct the election.
“No wonder the discrepancies between the votes they hurriedly uploaded to the IREV and the votes they presented for collation. See attached and marked Exhibit A’ the collation of the results from Nkanu East LGA as uploaded on INEC’s Portal.”
The LP governorship candidate further told INEC that the results collated in several other polling units and the Wards, in the LGA show that the votes allocated to the candidates are more than the total number of PVCs collected as a result of non-usage of the BVAS.
He argued that it is evidently clear that BVAS as required by the Electoral Act was not used for the voter’s accreditation, noting that going by Section 47(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, the results from the entire Nkanu East should be cancelled.
“We, therefore urge the Returning Officer to cancel the results of the Nkanu East Local Government Gubernatorial election which was conducted without the usage of BVAS as mandatorily required by the Act,” Edoga stated.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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