Breaking: INEC to conduct supplementary elections in Doguwa / Tudun Wada Federal Constituency

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cancelled the election results of the embattled majority leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa. Naija News and Vanguard learnt that the Returning Officer for the election, Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, announced the new development On Wednesday.

The electoral umpire declared that there was no winner in the February 25 National Assembly Election in Doguwa and Tudunwada Federal Constituencies. Doguwa, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was initially declared the winner of the election.

However, the electoral umpire delisted his name from the reps-elect and failed to issue him a certificate of return as the commission said the lawmaker was declared the winner of the election under duress.

This followed the arrest of Doguwa in connection with the violence which broke out in the constituency during the collation of the election where at least two people were killed when a secretariat of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) was set ablaze while in the area.

The police had arraigned the ranking lawmaker at a magistrate’s court which remanded him in prison but Doguwa was granted a N500 million bail and barred from Saturday’s election. Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, the Returning Officer for the election, announced the new development in Doguwa’s constituency.

 

Source: Naija News/Vanguard

 

 

Peter Obi won Feb 25 election, we back his decision to challenge Tinubu: Afenifere

Afenifere has supported the decision of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, to seek redress in court, by challenging the results of the presidential election. The pan-Yoruba sociocultural group, in a communique issued after its General Meeting, claimed that the results of the election available at its disposal showed that Mr Obi won the penultimate weekend presidential election.

“That the results of the lawful votes at the election available to the Afenifere through credible sources confirm that His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party won the said election and we thus support his decision challenging the contrary Declaration by the INEC,” it said. Afenifere’s national leader, Ayo Adebanjo, and the Secretary-General, Sola Ebiseni, jointly signed the communique obtained by Peoples Gazette on Wednesday.

Bola Tinubu, now president-elect, was declared winner of the election exercise conducted on February 25, 2023, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The electoral commission said Mr Tinubu defeated his main challengers, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr Obi, after polling 8,794,726 votes. Mr Abubakar came second in the poll after scoring 6,984,520 votes. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

The electoral commission has since issued a Certificate of Return to Mr Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima. Atiku Abubakar and Obi have rejected the result of the presidential election and have gone to court to seek redress.

In the communique, Afenifere also denied sending a congratulatory message to any of the candidates using the name of the ethnic group. While reviewing the presidential election, Afenifere said the deliberate non-compliance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with its mandatory guidelines during the exercise encouraged “electoral brigandage” at the polling units.

It added that the plunder which included destruction of ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes, doctoring of figures and swapping of votes of candidates at the coalition centres by amended and outlawed manual procedures rendered the presidential and National Assembly elections flawed in several respects as confirmed by local and international observers.

The group maintained that it had always preached equity, fairness, national cohesion and peaceful corporate existence by insisting that the next president of Nigeria shall come from the southern part and specifically the South-East. Afenifere, however, called on Nigerians to troop out en masse and participate fully in the next weekend’s gubernatorial and houses of assembly elections slated for March 11, 2023.

 

Source: Peoples Gazette