The gubernatorial election held in Anambra State on Saturday last week has been declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The Commission has equally fixed a Supplementary poll in Ihiala Local Government Area, where the exercise could not hold on Saturday due to security threats, for Tuesday this week.
The Returning Officer for the election and Vice Chancellor of University of Calabar, Professor Florence Obi, announced these after the collation of results of the 20 Local Government Areas, where the election took place.
She explained that the call for supplementary poll was in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.  “I Prof. Florence Banku Obi, in my capacity as the Returning Officer of this election hereby announce the suspension of collation of results and declaration of the winner until the supplementary election is held in the 326 polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state. The Commission has decided that the supplementary election will take place on Tuesday, 9th November, 2021. Then, the collation of results shall resume”.
The result from Orumba North Local Government Area generated accusations and counter accusations between the Collation Officer for the local government, Michael Otu and the Electoral Officer, Mrs Comfort Omoruyi, which made it to be subjected to scrutiny by a conference of collation officers.
The Collation Officer for the Local Government, Doctor Michael Otu, had while collating the results, alleged that he signed the document under duress and that the election did not take place in polling units.
This was however, debunked by the Electoral Officer for Orumba North, Mrs Comfort Omoruyi, who claimed that the election was transparent.
Photo: Sumaila Ibrahim/BJO/NAN
The APGA Agent, Senator Victor Umeh described the call for supplementary election in Ihiala as a welcome development.
“There is nothing to worry about. Now that the law requires that Ihiala Local Government Area must be part of this election, we totally agree so that when they go on Tuesday, the election will be decided in Ihiala and we then have 21 local government areas covered”.
On his part, the APC Agent, Mr Chibuzor Obiakor, said the decision was in the right direction.
“The declaration that the state collation officer made was the right one because we have one whole local government with over 300 polling units that are still outstanding. There was no single election held in that local government. There were some activities in the other twenty local governments. So, you have to bring that local government at par with other local government areas”.
The APC and PDP Agents refused to sign the results of the 20 Local Government Areas already collated.
