Election
INEC declares Anambra governorship election inconclusive
- Supplementary election hold Tuesday in Ihiala
- Soludo wins 18 out of 20 LGAs
- APC humiliated, loses all LGAs
The ongoing Anambra governorship election has been declared inconclusive by the Chief Returning Officer for the election, Professor Florence Obi.
The INEC officer declared this on Monday morning at the commission’s head office in Awka at about 12:15am when party agents, reporters, and observers had waited for the declaration of a winner.
However, things took a different turn when Prof Obi, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar in Cross River State, announced that the winner will only be declared after a supplementary election was held in Ihiala local government area.
According to Obi, results had been collated from 20 out of 21 local government areas.
She added, “The outstanding results are for Ihiala Local Government Area where for various reasons, the commission could not deploy materials yesterday (Saturday).
“Consequently, based on Constitutional considerations and provisions of the Electoral Act, as well as revised regulations and guidelines for the conduct of election issued by the commission, a supplementary election is indicated for Ihiala Local Government Area.”
Moving forward, Obi declared that a supplementary election would be conducted in the 326 polling units across Ihiala on Tuesday, November 9.
Ihiala is the only one of Anambra’s 21 LGAs where elections could not hold.
“Clause 47 of the Revised Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections provides that supplementary elections shall be conducted where the commission due to logistic challenges is unable to deploy on Election Day,” Professor Obi said.
“Given the foregoing, it becomes imperative to bring Ihiala Local Government Area at par with the other 20 local government areas in this election before we can make a valid declaration in this election or take any further action based on the extant laws.
“Therefore, I, Professor Florence Banku Obi, in my capacity as Returning Officer for this election, hereby announce the suspension of the process of collation of results and declaration of a winner until a supplementary election is held in the 326 polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.
“I have conferred with the commission, being the body that fixes the date for the election, and the commission has decided that the supplementary election will take place on Tuesday, 9th November 2021. Therefore, the collation of results shall resume thereafter.”
She urged party agents and residents of the state to support electoral officers during the supplementary election to make sure that the election “is brought to a satisfactory conclusion, for the good of the people of Anambra State, the people of Nigeria, and to the Glory of God”.
Meanwhile, there have been silent celebrations in the camp of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA candidate, Prof Charles Soludo, who has won 18 of the 20 Local Government Areas for which results were declared.
Candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Valentine Ozigbo, and Young Progressives Party (YPP), Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, each won a local government.
However, the candidate of the ruling party in Nigeria, All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Uba, was unable to win any local government in the election.
