News Editor
By Our Correspondent in Lafia.
The legal team representing PDP candidate, Dr. David Emmanuel Ombugadu, in Nasarawa State, have alleged that the election results were manipulated by some constituency/local government collation officers.
They made their claim in a letter signed by his counsel, Michael Jonathan Numa SAN, and addressed to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Ombugadu stated that there were irregularities in the results collation process which favoured the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The lawyers claim that some ward collation officers were allowed to alter their entry on forms EC8Bs for some wards that had already been collated, in order to inflate the figures and favor their preferred candidate.
In particular, the lawyers state that after the collation of polling unit results comprising the Gayam and Chiroma wards, the total number of accredited voters of Gayam ward was 13,825, while that of Chiroma ward was 21,125. The sum total of valid votes cast in Gayam and Chiroma wards were 13,525 and 20,542, respectively.
These figures they claim were clearly reflected in the BVAS report and the Forms EC8A uploaded on the INEC IReV portal.
Meanwhile in Chiroma Ward, the total scores for APC following alteration in form EC8B has an inflated figure of 50,944 while that of PDP was drastically
reduced to 851.While in Gayam Ward the total scores for APC after the alterations in form EC8B has an inflated total of 29,857 while that of PDP was reduced.
The lawyers maintain that all duplicate copies from respective polling units were issued to all party agents and security personnel present at the polling units.
They note that these same results had already been uploaded to the INEC portal by the presiding officers, showing the total number of registered voters, total accredited voters, total valid votes, total invalid votes, and total votes cast in all polling units in the state, including Gayam and Chiroma electoral wards.
In the light of these allegations, the legal team is calling for an immediate review of the Returning Officer’s decision and the immediate declaration of their client, Dr. David Emmanuel Ombugadu, as the winner of the Nasarawa State gubernatorial election held on March 18th.
