By Barry Agbanigbi
With 187,140 registered voters in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State out of which 162,082 persons collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), there’s no iota of doubt that the total cancellation of the result of the area did substantially affect the outcome of the Delta South Senatorial district election of February 25.
Going by the details of the result as announced by Prof. Anthony Peretimina, the Returning Officer, the winning candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Ewomazino Thomas Joel-Ovughakpo scored 49, 955 votes to defeat Michael Diden of the PDP who polled 47, 656 votes.
Peeved by the declaration of Mr. Joel-Onughakpo as the winner, Diden and PDP have since dragged APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Asaba, where they will attempt to convince the judges that the cancellation of Warri South Local Government Area results significantly changed the result of the highly disputed Senatorial election.
In line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the Regulations and Guidelines for the 2023 Elections as issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), counsel to Diden and PDP, Chief Ayo Asala, SAN petitioned that since the margin of lead between the PDP candidate who scored 47,656 votes and his APC rival who scored 49,955 votes is 2,299, the commission ought to have declared the election inconclusive.
With the difference between Mr. Joel-Ovughakpo and Mr. Diden standing at 2,299, Mr. Asala argued that it was crystal clear that the number of registered voters and/or number of collected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) from Warri South Local Government Area, which are 187,140 and 162,082 respectively, far exceeded the margin of lead between the loser and the winner.
The petitioners argued that the failure to hold the supplementary election in Warri South Local Government Area with a voting strength of 162,082, being the number of people that collected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and were, therefore, eligible to vote, has substantially affected the result of the election in the Delta South Senatorial District having regard to the margin of lead of 2,299 between the winner and the loser in the election.
He argued: “The Electoral Act, 2022, Regulations and Guidelines for Election 2022, Manual for Electoral Officials 2023, issued, published and used by INEC for the conduct of the National Assembly election of February 25, 2023, among other elections throughout Nigeria, provide for the Margin of Lead Principles, that where the margin of lead between the two leading candidates in an election is NOT in excess of the total number of collected Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) in polling units where elections are not held or cancelled, the Returning Officer shall decline to make a return until polls have taken place in the affected polling units and results collated into the relevant forms for Declaration and Return.”
In their petition marked EPT/DT/SEN/ 01/2023, Diden and PDP are asking the tribunal to void INEC’s declaration of the candidate of the APC as Senator-elect for the district on the ground that he “was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the election” and that the election “was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
Dated March 17, 2023 and filed same day by their team of lawyers led by Chief Asala, the petitioners amongst others are seeking an order of the tribunal “collating the results of the election conducted in Warri South Local Government Area to the lawful votes recorded in favour of the parties and declare the winner of the election based on the collation”.
The petitioners queried the Returning Officer for not complying with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, and the extant Regulations, Guidelines and Manual for Election Officials in the collation and declaration of the final results in the senatorial district.
They contended that election was held in all the eight local government areas that make up the Senatorial district. Still, the commission curiously refused to include results from the Warri South Local Government Area in its final computation of results and subsequent declaration of the APC as the winner of the senatorial election in the district.
While insisting that the election in Warri South Local Government Area was peacefully conducted in accordance with the procedure spelt out in the Electoral Act, 2022, Guidelines and Manuals issued by the commission as spelt out in paragraph 12 of the petition, Diden and PDP insisted that the action of INEC despite protest from petitioners’ agents amounts to a breach of the Electoral Act, 2022 and INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines.
According to them, the Collation/Retuning Officer has no power to cancel and/or exclude any results validly declared at the polling unit level, noting that the decision of the Local Government Collation Officer and Collation/Returning Officer in cancelling the result in Ward 06-Bowen and excluding lawful votes from the entire Warri South Local Government Area is contrary to the relevant laws, Guidelines and Manual issued by INEC to guide the conduct of the election.
Continuing, the petitioners pointed out that the senatorial election in Warri South Local Government Area was simultaneously conducted with the Presidential and House of Representatives elections, noting that the processes of accreditation, voting, sorting and counting of the ballot papers and announcement of results at the polling units in Warri South Local Government Area were done contemporaneously with the Presidential and House of Representatives election at the same venue and time after which the results for the Presidential and House of Representatives elections were collated and announced.
At the hearing, the petitioners vow to lead evidence to show that election was duly held and results declared in eleven Wards out of the twelve Wards in Warri South Local Government Area and that the electoral umpire was wrong in excluding the results collated and submitted to the Returning Officer in the final declaration of results (Form EC8E(1)).
According to them, results of contestants in the eleven wards in Warri South Local Government Area based on collation form EC8B (1) clearly showed that APC polled 3,057 votes as against PDP’s 10,610 for PDP and 9,357 for the other political parties.
Again, they intend to contend at the hearing that after the collation of the valid votes from Warri South Local Government Area which was unlawfully excluded from the computation of the final result by INEC, they scored a majority valid votes of 58,266 as against the second respondent’s valid votes of 53,012 and that having scored the majority of the valid and lawful votes cast at the said elections, Diden is the winner of the said election and duly elected and returned as the Senator representing Delta South Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
“The petitioners urge that it may also be determined and thus declared that the second respondent was not duly elected or returned by the majority of lawful votes cast at the Delta South Senatorial election held on February 25, 2023.
Asala insisted: “It may be determined and thus declared that by the lawful votes cast at the Delta South Senatorial election held on February 25, 2023, the first petitioner, Diden Michael of the PDP ought to have been returned and should be returned as the duly elected Senator representing Delta South Senatorial District.”
The petitioners noted that Warri South Local Government Area constitutes part of the strongholds of the petitioners where they enjoy massive support of the electorates, adding that the failure of the commission to conduct supplementary election in the local government after the purported cancellation of the result from all the polling units there denied them substantial votes that would have enabled them to win the election.
The petitioners demanded: “A declaration that the second respondent was not duly elected or returned by the majority of lawful votes cast at the senatorial election into the Delta South Senatorial District held on February 25, 2023.
“A declaration that the decision of the first respondent to cancel and exclude the result of the election duly conducted in Warri South Local Government Area, being one of the eight Local Government Areas making up Delta South Senatorial District, is wrongful and constitutes substantial non-compliance with the mandatory provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“A declaration that the return of the second respondent as the winner of the senatorial election into the Delta South Senatorial District by the first respondent is void by acts which clearly violate and breach various provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, Regulations and Guidelines as well as the Manual for Electoral Officials 2023 issued by the 1st Respondent for the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.”
They further demanded: “An order of this Honourable Court collating the results of the election conducted in Warri South Local Government Area to the lawful votes recorded in favour of the parties and declare the winner of the election based on the collation.
“An order declaring as duly elected and returned the first petitioner, Diden Michael as the Senator representing Delta South Senatorial District having scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the said election held on February 25, 2023.”