In response to the violence and failed BVAS that marred the elections on Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday canceled the results of 63 polling places in four Local Government Areas of Kogi.
Out of several others that met a similar fate, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) listed the LGAs involved as Okehi, Umala, Ulama-Boro, and Ibaji.
The Okehi LGA was the most severely affected, and the state government had dug some of its roads just days before the election to prevent criminal elements from entering the region.
At the Kogi Collation Centre, Dr. Emeka Oguju, the Okehi Collation Officer, presented the results to the State Collation Officer, Prof. Wahab Egbewale, and stated that 31 polling units’ results had been invalidated due to violence.
Ogujo claimed that 12, 037 votes were invalidated in the 31 polling places spread across four wards after political thugs stole the voting supplies.
He lamented that political thugs had infiltrated the polling places and caused violence in the majority of the affected polling places.
16 wards were impacted by thuggery during the exercise, according to Dr. L. Adang, the Umala Local Government Area’s collation officer, who reported this to the State Collation Officer in the Situation Room at the INEC State Office.
He claimed that 9,558 votes were invalidated in the local polling places that were impacted.
Dr. Adamu Wakili, the Olama-Boro LGA’s collation officer, also presented his results. He revealed that 3, 582 votes in five polling places were invalidated because of violence and faulty BVAS on Saturday during the general elections.
We had a problem with one BVAS that couldn’t function because of the remoteness of the community it was taken to, aside from the political thugs’ actions that had an impact on the election in our region.
Only five units in that community were impacted despite our best efforts, and we were unable to test whether it could work. We have informed the REC about that, ” he said.
Prof. Dauda Tanko, the collation officer for the Ibaji LGA, also claimed that thuggery caused the results of 11 polling places in the region to be invalidated.
Four Registration Areas were impacted by political thugs’ activities, according to Tanko, who did not specify how many votes were affected by the cancellation.
As a result of the actions of political thugs and a botched BVAS, NAN reported that the results of 11 polling places in the Kogi LGAs of Ofu and Yagba East had been cancelled.
