The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rescheduled elections in 16 polling units in Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency of Plateau because of missing ballot papers.

Oliver Agundu, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Plateau, said in a statement on Saturday night that the election has been rescheduled for Sunday, February 4.

Mr Agundu said that voting would commence at 9:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.

The REC stated that the commission discovered on the eve of the rerun on Saturday that the ballot papers for 16 polling units had gone missing.

He said that the matter had been referred to the security agencies for investigation.

“Determined that voters in the affected polling units were not disenfranchised, the commission convened a stakeholders’ meeting to explain the situation and discuss the way forward.

“It was resolved that the commission should remobilise and conduct the election in the affected polling units on Sunday, February 4, 2024, to conclude the process in the Federal Constituency.

“Consequently, the election will be held in three polling units (out of 216) in Naraguta “B” Ward and 13 polling units (out of 187) in Tudun Wada-Kabong Ward of Jos North LGA, making a total of 16 polling units (out of 403) with 15,904 registered voters.

“To allow for the reconfiguration of the BVAS devices and other logistics arrangements, stakeholders agreed that voting would commence at 9:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.

“As usual, all voters in the queue before 3:30 p.m. will be allowed to vote,” he said.

Mr Agundu appealed to all eligible voters in the constituency to come out and cast their votes peacefully for the candidates of their choice.

He emphasised that the arrangement only affected registered voters in the 16 polling units in the federal constituency, saying that it does not affect registered voters in the Jos North Senatorial District.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has written to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), seeking an investigation into action of suspended Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Hudu Yunusa Ari in the state’s governorship election.

Recall that Yunusa-Ari had declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Aisha ‘Binani’ Dahiru as the winner of the supplementary poll even while the collation of results was ongoing, a decision INEC nullified.

The police has now confirmed that they have received INEC’s letter demanding Yunusa-Ari’s probe. The Police Force spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said in a statement;

“The Nigeria Police Force is in receipt of a letter dated 18th April 2023 from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) detailing the alleged impropriety of the actions of one Barr.

Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), during the recently concluded supplementary elections and called on the Police to investigate and possibly prosecute the REC for his actions.

“The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, CFR, has directed an investigative team to work in collaboration with the INEC to expedite action on the contents of the letter.

“The Inspector-General of Police while expressing the commitment of the NPF to upholding democratic values, assures Nigerians and the international community, that the Police will leave no stone unturned in unraveling the remote causes of the unwholesome conduct of the REC as well as ensure that all persons fingered in the course of investigations are brought to book.”

No fewer than nine Senior Advocates of Nigeria have been appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission to defend the results of the February 25 presidential election.

The team, according to City Lawyer, is to be led by former Nigerian Bar Association President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN). Other members of the team are Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN).

It was gathered from a member of the legal team that four SANs who are staff members of INEC’s legal department are also members of the team alongside Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi.

INEC budgeted over N3bn to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls.

The PUNCH reports that several candidates who lost in the elections have filed petitions at the presidential and state election petition tribunals to challenge the outcome of the polls.

So far, over 100 election petitions have been filed by aggrieved candidates and their parties across the country.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party, Peter Obi; the Action Alliance, Solomon Okangbuan; Allied Peoples Movement, Chichi Ojei, have also filed petitions for the nullification of the presidential election results.

The commission had on March 1, 2023, declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

INEC has fixed the election for Ido-Osi Constituency 1 in the Ekiti House of Assembly for April 15.

The resident electoral commissioner in the state, Ayobami Salami, announced this in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday while presenting certificates of return to 25 other assembly members elected on March 18.

INEC declared the election in Ido-Osi Constituency 1 inconclusive because of the disruption of the exercise by suspected hoodlums.

Mr Salami noted that the exercise was declared inconclusive in only three polling units in the constituency.

He expressed the preparedness of INEC to conduct a peaceful and hitch-free supplementary election in the polling units on April 15.

He appealed to stakeholders in the constituency to cooperate with the electoral body and with security agencies for a successful conclusion of the process.

“The commission has only three polling units in Ido-Osi Constituency 1, where election was inconclusive. The inconclusive election will be concluded on April 15. We are prepared; we are ready to conduct the election,” stated the INEC chief in Ekiti.

Mr Salami added;

“We appeal to all the stakeholders in Ido-Osi Constituency 1 to please, cooperate with INEC and the security agencies so that the commission can have a successful conclusion of the process. I believe we shall get more support and more collaboration of all stakeholders.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has declared the governorship election in Kebbi state inconclusive.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Prof. Yusuf Saidu, who disclosed this, said the election was marred by irregularities in 18 local government areas of the state.

The returning officer quoted some sections from the electoral law which gave him the power to declare the results inconclusive.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised to thoroughly review results of Saturday’s governorship and States Assembly elections.

The electoral umpire made the promise following allegations of voter harassment, inducement and manipulation of results in several states.

INEC also explained why it has not uploaded all the results of the February 25 Presidential election to its results viewing portal, IReV.

A statement released by INEC’s spokesperson, Festus Okoye, read;

“The Commission did not deploy to 176,846 polling units during the Presidential and National Assembly elections. We explained to Nigerians that there were polling units that had zero registered voters and consequently, the Commission deployed to a total of 176,606 polling units.

“Not only that, there were places where elections did not take place and there were places where the deployment did not take place. So in those areas you do not expect any results to be uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal for such areas.

“So, the commission, before we reconfigured the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly Elections, we made sure that data that were left behind in the BVAS relating to the Presidential and National Assembly Elections were pushed to the backend for purposes of giving those who want to go to court or giving litigants the opportunity of having the data from the backend of the commission relating to those who were accredited during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections.

“Political parties and candidates have been applying for this particular data and the commission has been making the accreditation data available to all those who are interested.

“With the governorship election, you can see that there has been improved performance of the IReV In terms of uploading of polling units results in real time. You can also notice that there was improved performance in terms of voter identification and authentication. Now, what that means is that the commission is making progress and also making efforts to overcome whatever challenges were recorded during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

“We have left no stone unturned as far as the processes and procedures under the control of the Commission were concerned. However, for difficult and unforeseen circumstances outside the Commission’s control, we did our best to respond, especially where processes were disrupted by actors over whom we have little or no control.

“Such diabolical behaviour did not only affect citizens but also impacted on the Commission’s officials and processes. INEC staff, both regular and ad hoc were victims of violence. Some of our staff were abducted, harassed, intimidated, hospitalized and in one case killed.

“Nevertheless, where we could not deploy to enable citizens to vote, the Commission took the decision to remobilize to such places to enable citizens to exercise their franchise. Unfortunately, we could not extend the same to areas where voting was disrupted, and election materials destroyed. We are keeping our eyes on those areas and would not hesitate to remobilize where the outcome of the election is affected.

“At the moment, collation of results and declaration of winners for the 28 Governorship and 993 State Assembly elections are ongoing nationwide. We are committed to the sanctity of the process and will not hesitate to take drastic measures against proven irregularities. Allegations of voter inducement, harassment and manipulation of results will be reviewed and addressed.

“He said the commission is still collating figures relating to the number of staff abducted. Some have been released and some are still facing various degrees of threats in various states of the Federation. At the end of the exercise, we will have full details about the incidents.

“On the invasion of INEC’s Obingwa Local Government Area office in Abia State by thugs during the collation of results for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, results from the area would be thoroughly reviewed.

“In contention was the collated result from the Registration Areas for the Governorship election in that Local Government Area. The intention was to force the collation of these contentious results. The behaviour of these thugs is unacceptable and there will be a thorough review of the results.

“The Commission does not take the patience of citizens for granted and will continue to take steps to protect the integrity of the vote and consolidate the progress made so far in the electoral process”.

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission have arrived at the polling unit of the Labour Party candidate in the Lagos State governorship election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.