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Tag: Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

  • Abba files petition against Ganduje’s victory

    Twenty days after the declaration of Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje as winner of the March 23 governorship election in Kano State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP in Kano on Thursday finally filed petition against the victory.

    The petition filed by the party before the governorship election tribunal is contending its governorship candidate Abba Yusuf, won the March 9 election, as such any result other than that was a nullity.

    The party is also contending that the supplementary election conducted by INEC was unconstitutional and unlawful.

    Read Also: I’m ready to face PDP in court, says Ganduje

    Speaking to journalists shortly after filing the petition, Yusuf said during the March 9 governorship election the PDP got the highest votes across the 44 local governments in the state.

    “The prayer we are asking is for the tribunal to determine the actual winner in the election that took place on March 9.

    ” To me as the PDP candidate the only election that took place was on March 9.”

    He noted the issue of supplementary election as far as PDP is concerned was an illegality ‘which we reject and have nothing to do with that is the content of the petition.”

    The petitioners Counsel, Maliki Kuliya-Umar, said the declaration of the March 9 election as inconclusive was an opportunity given to APC to rig its candidate back to power.

    “We trust the tribunal to do what is right by confirming the election of March 9, as it was the only election recognized by law,” he said.

    Umar argued that whatever reason INEC had to declare the March 9 election inconclusive was unconstitutional and not in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

    NAN

     

  • Polls: INEC chair, IGP, others blame politicians for violence, malpractices

    Politicians and their agents should carry the can for the malpractices and violence that characterised the 2019 general elections.

    This was the submission of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Mahmood Yakubu; Acting Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba as well as other stakeholders.

    They spoke on Wednessay in Abuja at the Forum of Anti-corruption Situation Room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).

    In a keynote address, Prof Yakubu said vote buying and selling have become a source of great worry to the Commission, the people and the international community.

    The INEC chair, who was represented by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, narrated how politicians and their agents devised various methods to compromise the electoral process.

    According to him, one of the methods employed by the politicians and their agents was to buy up Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from voters in the political “safe haven” of their opponents ahead of an election.

    He also accused them of compromising security agents and some ad hoc staff of INEC who looked the other way while votes were being bought and sold.

    Yakubu said that some money bags bought over agents of other political parties who betrayed their own political parties for money.

    The INEC chair cited also situations where voters were made to surrender their PVCs to middlemen as a precondition for assessing government amenities and facilities.

    Read Also: INEC releases timetable for Bayelsa, Kogi gov polls this week

    He said: “Politicians compromised traditional and religious leaders and community leaders by persuading them to persuade voters in their domain to vote in a particular way.

    “In some instances, they persuaded willing ad hoc staff to abandon the use of Smart Card Readers and provision of social amenities close to Election Day”.

    The INEC chief charged the various Election Petitions Tribunals to prosecute proven cases of electoral offences pending the establishment of a designated body for that purpose.

    Also speaking at the event, Acting IG Adamu said police personnel on election duty were constrained by the law which prevented them from bearing firearms around voting areas.

    The IG, who was represented by Assistant Inspector-General Peter Ogunyanwo, said the constraint made it impossible for officers on election duties to confront armed political thugs who attacked voters and disrupted voting.

    The IG observed that politicians lacked patriotism, nationalism and the fear of God in their conduct during elections.

    He lamented that politicians, who he described as beneficiaries of electoral malpractices, lacked the required will and patriotism to put in place the needed electoral reforms.

    According to him, measures prescribed by law to punish electoral offenders were not punitive enough to deter electoral offenders.

    He cited the provision of Section 308 of the Constitution, which confers immunity from prosecution on sitting governors and their deputies when they commit offences.

    The AIG made allusions to the Rivers and Kano states, where the sitting governor and deputy governor allegedly committed electoral infractions during the March 9 governorship election but who could not be prosecuted as a result of their constitutional immunity.

    “In some cases, the law prescribes a fine of N40 as punishment for people caught with unlawful possession of firearms and other dangerous weapons. So where do we go from here”, the IG said.

    The police chief also blamed greed and stupidity on the part of voters who sell their votes to desperate politicians, saying they end up going back to their squalid conditions afterwards.

    He called on civil society groups and human rights organisations to mobilise for other segments of the public to mount pressure on the National Assembly to ensure birth of electoral reforms that will prescribe stiffer penalties for electoral offenders.

    On his part, the Labour leader blamed vote buying and selling on pervasive poverty and in the land. According to him, most of the voters could not resist monetary offers for their votes by desperate politicians.

    He bemoaned a situation where some state governments pay civil servants, particularly teachers as little as N7000 monthly salary.

    Describing the electoral process in the country as work in progress, Wabba noted, having realised that votes now count, politicians have resorted to vote buying from impoverished electorate.

    The NLC noted that there is no way a compromised electoral process can produce transparent and competent leaders or good governance.

    The situation, he said, has made it impossible for the people to hold their leaders accountable and called for drastic electoral reforms to sanitise the process.

    Activist lawyer, Mr Femi Falana who chaired the event, canvased electronic voting as solution to electoral malpractice, saying the country was ripe enough for it.

    According to him, vote buying and ballot manipulation started in 2003 with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and that the situation has continued to escalate with every election circle.

    He blamed the Election Petitions Tribunals and the courts for condoning electoral practices where billions of naira were raised for the election of individuals against the provisions of the Electoral Act.

    “This is how our courts endorse electoral manipulation and criminality”. He called on the INEC and the civil society organisations to assist the police in ensuring the prosecution of electoral offenders.

    Falana said the current practice where cases of electoral offenders are left to state prosecutors to handle is subject to abuse by Attorneys General who withdraw such cases at will.

  • Court to open hearing in N50b suit against INEC, two others

    Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled hearing for May 27 this year in a suit seeking to among others, bar the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from further use of transparent ballot boxes, permanent voters’ card and related devices for elections.

    The suit, filed by a firm – Bedding Holdings Limited – is intended, among others to enforce two pending judgments given by the Federal High Court on June 5, 2012 and January 28, 2014 which affirmed the firm’s exclusive patent rights over some inventions that formed the core of INEC’s electoral operations.

    Bedding identified the inventions on which it has patent rights to include: “the Transparent Ballot Boxes (TBB), Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes (ECI’BB), Direct Data Capturing Machines, Electronic Card Reader (ECR), its derivable Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) and Proof of Address System Scheme (PASS) Embedded with the Concept of the Coded Metal Plate and the Process and Application of these products to produce the Voters’ Register respectively.”

    The suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1537/2018, has Bedding listed as the sole applicant, with INEC, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Registrar of Patents, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, listed as respondents.

    The applicant wants an order, compelling the respondents to abide by the judgment of the court delivered on June 5, 2012 in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/82/2011 and on January 28, 2014 in suit: FHC/ABJ/CS/816/2010.

    Bedding is also praying praying the court for an order, directing the respondents to pay it N50billion “as exemplary damages for the continued use of the Transparent Ballot Boxes, Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes and Direct Data Capturing Machines for the registration of voters and or the collation/compilation and production of the voters’ register” without its prior and express consent.

    Read Also: Court remands suspected killer of police corporal

    It equally seeks an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the respondents from using its inventions and anything derived thereof, without the prior and express consent, and “to declare any action or actions whatsoever and however or purported to have been taken in connection thereto, as illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, null and null.”

    On December 18, 2018, Justice Nnamdi  Dimgba (also of the Federal High Court, Abuja) restored the judgment given by Justice Adamu Bello on July 5, 2012 and gave bedding the permission to commence the process of enforcing the judgment.

    In a supporting affidavit, deposed to by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sylvester Odigie, Beddings claimed that the respondents have continued to disregard  the judgment of June 5, 2012 and a subsequent one of January 28, 2014 which further confirmed its (the firm’s) exclusive patent rights over the said inventions.

    Bedding stated that its core speciality is in the fabrication and manufacture of steel metal products such as transparent ballot boxes, electronic transparent boxes, among other products.

    It added that: “On 12th January, 1998 the applicant (Bedding) was issued with Certificate of Registration of Patent Rights No. RP 12994 and Registration of Industrial Designs Rights No. RD 5946 in and over the invention named Transparent Ballot Boxes (“TBB”) by the 3rd respondent (Registrar of Patents).

    “Also on 27th November, 2006, the applicant registered and was issued with the Patent Rights No. RP 16642 and Copyright Designs No. RD 13841 in and over the invention named “Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes”, an improved derivative of TBB, which integral features include the Electronic Card Reader (ECR) and it’s derivable Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) thereof and Patent Rights NORP NG/P/2010/202, Proof of Address System/Scheme (PASS) (Embedded with the concept of the Coded Metal Plate) the process and-application of which is used to produce the voters’ register.

    “The above stated Patent and Industrial Designs Rights of the applicant is still valid and subsisting till date having been extended at various times by the 3rd respondent upon the application of the applicant.

    “By virtue of the above and the applicant being the exclusive and bona fide patentee of the said Patent and Design Rights over the inventions named Transparent Ballot Boxes (TBB),, Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes (ECTBB); Direct Date Capturing Machines, Electronic Card Reader (ECR), Permanent Voter’s Card, (PVC) and Proof of Address System Scheme (PASS) Embedded with the Concept of the Coded Metal Plate and the Process and Application of these products to produce the voters’ register respectively, the applicant and the 1st respondent (INEC) executed a license agreement on the 29th day of January 2003 wherein the applicant granted to the 1st respondent license over Transparent Ballot Boxes (“TBB”) till 29th of March 2003.

    “Further to the above, the 1st respondent, in issuing out award letters to its agents and contractors with respect to the transparent ballot boxes, included a clause informing them of the applicant’s right to the patent.”

    Bedding further stated that despite the subsistence of its patent rights over the inventions, the 3rd respondent, on October 14, 2010 issued similar certificates to three other firms in relation to the inventions over which it already had exclusive patent rights.

    The firm stated that upon the its “discovery of the multiple registrations and issuance of certificate of patent rights and/or designs rights to Tambco United Nigeria Limited and  Anowat Project & Resources Limited in and over the exact product of the applicant,” it filed the suit on January 11, 2011, on which the judgment of June 5, 2012 was given.

    It said another judgment was also given in suit: FHC/ABJ/CS/816/2010 on January 28, 2014 by the court, which among others compelled the respondents (including INEC) to always obtain permission from the applicant (BHL) before buying or using the said inventions.

    Bedding stated that “The 1st respondent, in deliberate and further defiance and contempt of the order of this honourable court, has perfected plans and are against taking steps to use the applicant’s Transparent Ballot Boxes (“TBB”) and Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes for the conduct of the 2019 general election without the consent, license and authority of the applicant.

    “The applicant has continued to suffer great financial loss and hardship due to the act of the respondents in deliberately refusing to pay the royalties accruable to the applicant for the patented materials used for conducting past general elections and other elections in the years between 2007 and 2018 despite the fact that there were appropriation for every election cycle for each of the patented materials illegally ‘used.

    “In spite of the judgments of this honourable court, the respondents have deliberately failed and neglected to comply or abide by the orders of this honourable court.

    “The 1st respondent, in brazen disregard of the honourable .court’s orders, continued to make pronouncement with respect to Continuous Voters Registration Exercise (CVR) at different times leading up to the year 2018.

    “The respondents cannot claim ignorance of the existence of judgments and orders of this honourable court as same were published in The Nation Newspaper of Wednesday 4th of July 2012 in respect of Suit N0. FHC/ABJ/ CSI82/2o11 in respect of (TBB) and (ECTBB) and the applicant’s letter of demand in respect of judgment sum in suit N0. FHC/ABJ/CS/816/2010 through its counsel, dated 12th February, 2014.

    “The applicant avers that one of the two patents used in the suit FHC/ABJ/CS/816/201O ECTBB is the Improved Derivative of (TBB) which electronic features includes the Electronic Card Readers (ECR) or otherwise known as Optical Card Reader (OCR) and other implements.

    “The applicant loses a minimum of N10, 000,000,000.00. (Ten billion naira only) for every election cycle conducted using the applicant’s Transparent Ballot Boxes (TBB), Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes (ECTBB), Direct Data Capturing Machines, Electronic Card Reader (ECR), its derivable Permanent Voters’ Card, (PVC) thereof and Proof of Address System Scheme (PASS) Embedded with the Concept of the Coded Metal Plate and the process and application of these products to produce the voter’s register respectively, without the applicant’s consent, license and authority?.”

  • INEC’s silence on PDP access to server worrisome, says BMO

    The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has expressed concerns over the long silence of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to claims of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of having access to its backend servers.

    BMO said the long silence was worrisome and frightening.

    Chairman and secretary of the group, Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Madueke respectively said in a statement the claim by the PDP that it had gained illegal access to the servers of INEC through the assistance of some INEC officials was too grave a criminal confession for the electoral Commission to keep mum.

    The pro Buhari group said: “This is most frightening. That INEC is not alarmed or bothered by such blatant claim by the PDP to have procured the hacking of its systems – whether it is false or not- is most worrisome. We would have expected INEC to swing into clearing the air immediately and distancing itself from such a criminal conduct. But INEC has kept a deafening silence.

    “INEC’s silence on this confession of criminality against it is not golden. It is suspicious and carries a weight of taint that must be called out.

    Read Also: INEC sets up committee on Imo North senatorial poll

    “It can be likened to a scenario where a thief says he has robbed a bank and the bank remains silent on the confession of robbery against it, whether its safes and moneys are intact or not. Silence is very weighty in any such instance”.

    BMO said that it knew that the claim by the PDP that it was in possession of results fraudulently fetched from the INEC servers was “a hoax and only an exhibition of the innate fraudulent character of the PDP.

    “For instance, according to the group, the so-called results did not tally with reality, with fundamental errors such as the absence of votes of other political parties that participated during the election. Still, we believe that INEC ought not to be silent in the face of such wild allegations.

    “The very character of the PDP is one of fraud, dishonesty and malfeasance; it is not out of its character to have made moves to procure the hacking into the INEC servers by some of the Commission’s staff.

    “Its Freudian slip of this admission of the stupid attempt, however unsuccessful, must be dealt with and addressed with all sense of seriousness. This, INEC has failed to do.”

    The group said that the recent claim by the PDP to have colluded with INEC staff to have access to INEC’s back-end servers raises serious posers as to an unholy romance between INEC and the PDP.

  • Court judgement, an affirmation of people’s will, says Omo-Agege

    Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central, APC) has described judgement of the Federal High Court in Warri, which held he was the validly elected candidate as an affirmation of the will of the people of Delta state.

    In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Communications and Strategy, Godwin Anaughe, the Senator said the court only affirmed what was already known that Emerhor Oe’terga was not the candidate of the APC.

    The statement reads: “The judgement delivered by the Federal High Court Warri on the 2nd of April 2019 definitively refused and rejected all the claims of Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson and Ima Niboro in which they sought to be declared the Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta Central Senatorial district and Udu/Ughelli Federal Constituency respectively.

    “In doing so, the Federal High Court sitting in Warri, presided over by Hon. Justice Emeka Nwite acknowledged the obvious and validated what has been the true position all these while: Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson certainly does not have a legal right to the Delta Central Senatorial seat. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is the Senator-elect having duly won the legitimate primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC, held on October 3rd, 2018 and also won the general elections held on February 23rd, 2019, despite Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson’s working assiduously against APC in the senatorial election and ensuring that the party is defeated in his unit and ward.

    “The Federal High Court in its judgement upheld the statutory role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in monitoring activities of political parties, particularly the monitoring of primaries to elect candidates to contest the general elections.

    Read Also: Court upholds Omo-Agege’s election

    “The Court found as proof that in the primaries of the APC which INEC monitored, the winner is Senator Ovie Omo Agege and not Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson, a fact the Court said was admitted by Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson.

    “The Court also found that Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson being an aspirant who claimed to have won a primary election as against other contestants, improperly instituted his case when he refused to join other contestants as parties to the suit. That amounts to shaving their heads behind their backs.”

    The statement added:   “Not having joined Senator Omo-Agege and Rev. Francis Waive as necessary parties, the Court found the case to be incompetent.

    “On the merit of the case, the Court in its judgment found against Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson and held that he did not win the primaries of the APC conducted by the National Working Committee of the APC and monitored by INEC. The winner of the APC primaries conducted by the National Working Committee of the APC and monitored by INEC is Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

    “The Court then finally struck out the suit for being incompetent and lacking in merit. This judgement is a victory for all candidates of the APC in Delta State who fought so hard to achieve victory for our great party. It is a tremendous victory for democracy, rule of law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “It is a victory for the people of Delta Central Senatorial District who voted for Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to return to the Senate as a ranking Senator to continue the good work he started three years ago. And it rebukes Emerhor Oghenetega Germanson’s attempt to steal the election and subvert the will of the people.

    “This judgement is also a moment of profound clarity following months of frenzied media coverage that tended to confuse and mislead the general public. We applaud the Court for its decision and for affirming what we already knew to be the will of the people of Delta Central Senatorial District.”

  • INEC declares Sekibo winner of Rivers East Senatorial election

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Sen. Thompson Sekibo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the Rivers East Senatorial Election.

    Mr. Edwin Enabor, INEC Head, Voters Education and Publicity in the state disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Port Harcourt.

    Enabor said Sekibo won the election held on Feb. 23 after polling 283,759 votes.

    He said Mr Apiafi Jocelyn of the PDP also won the Rivers West Senatorial poll with 159,215 votes.

    Enabor also declared Mr. Dagogo Fara of the PDP, winner of Degema/ Bonny federal constituency election with 30,422 votes.

    Others are Mrs. Nwankwo Promise of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who won the Oyibo state constituency seat with 26,675 votes.

    Read Also: Updated: INEC declares Wike re-elected in Rivers

    Mr. Anthony Soberekon of PDP who won the Degema constituency seat with 10,976 votes, Mr Bariene Deleyah of PDP who won in Khana 1 seat with 64,269 votes and Mr. Prince Ngbor of the PDP who won the Khana 11 seat with 39,681 votes.

    He said the state House of Assembly outstanding supplementary election would hold on the April 13.

    He said the election would hold in 20 polling units in Opobo/ Nkoro, 47 polling units in Ahoada West among others.

    NAN

  • Rivers: Let the will of the people prevail – Obi

    Mr Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the will of people prevail as it resumes collation of results in Rivers.

    Obi, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP in the last Presidential Election gave the advice in a statement issued by his Media Office on Monday in Abuja.

    INEC has fixed between April 2 and April 5 for the collation of results for March 9 Rivers’ Governorship Election, which was earlier suspended due to disruption and violence.

    Obi said that the needless stretch of Rivers people could only be compensated if peoples will was allowed to prevail in all elective positions in the state.

    He advised INEC to see the collation of results in the state as a huge opportunity to project its image.

    Obi said that the people of Rivers should not have been subjected to the agony of waiting for more than 20 days before hearing their results, if not for those who were desperate for power.

    He said that Rivers state was so critical to the economic and political development of the country that a serious government should not contribute to its destabilization.

    Read Also: Obi hails Tinubu’s advice on VAT

    The former Anambra Governor said that the militarization of the election in Rivers and other South South states remained the sour side of 2019 general elections.

    Obi said that aside the fact that Rivers state was a traditional PDP state, the performance of its gubernatorial flag bearer, Nyesom Wike in the last four years made imperative that no party would be able to compete effectively in the state.

    He commended the resilience of the Rivers people and urged them to remain resolute until their will prevailed.

    NAN

  • Delta Central senatorial battle: Omo-Agege in self-denial – Emerhor

    The leader of the Mainstream Delta All Progressives Congress (APC), Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, has expressed confidence the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would soon withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and re-issue it in his (Emerhor’s) name.

    Emerhor, in a statement by his media aide, Aghogho Orotomah, referred to a recent judgement by the Federal High Court in Asaba, upheld the Cyril Ogodo-led executives as the lawful APC executive council in Delta state.

    The judgment also recognised the primaries held by the council, making Emerhor to declare INEC was already in the process of correcting errors made along the way to the elections in the state.

    The party leader, who emerged as the party’s flag-bearer for Delta Central Senatorial District in the primaries held by the Ogodo-led executive council, said the INEC, while issuing certificate of return to winners of the election in the state, refused to issue the certificates for three APC House of Assembly candidates in obedience to the Federal High Court judgement.

    Read Also: Appeal Court has not voided my election, says Omo-Agege

    He added the ones already issued to Senator Omo-Agege and Rev. Francis Waive would soon be withdrawn to be re-issued to the authentic candidates of the primaries conducted by the Ogodo-led executive council.

    “The Federal High Court, Asaba, made a specific order, order no 4 in the court enrolled orders, nullifying the full plate of NASS, Governorship and House of Assembly candidates list of Delta APC submitted to INEC through the Prophet Jones Erue Exco, which contained the following names as APC  senatorial candidates to wit:

    Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan for Delta South; Senator Ovie Omo-Agege for Delta Central and Hon Doris Uboh for Delta North.

    “Then order 5 went on to identify exhibit S and T as containing the list of the valid and authentic APC NASS, Governorship, and House of Assembly candidates for the 2019 general elections. The senatorial candidates contained in the court certified exhibits are as follows:

    Chief Micheal Johnny for Delta South; Olorogun O’tega Emerhor for Delta Central; and Chief Mrs Marian Ali for Delta North.

    “These enrolled orders have been served by the court bailiffs on INEC and INEC has begun the process of obedience to the order by refusing to give out the Certificate of Return to three affected candidates of the Prophet Jones Erue annulled list in Asaba on Wednesday March 27th 2019.

    “It is therefore obvious that the Certificate of Return already issued to Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is in error and it is only a matter of time for it to be withdrawn by INEC and together with those INEC already withheld, re-issue same to Olorogun O’tega Emerhor and others.

    “Senator Omo-Agege has to be in self- denial to continue to grandstand that the Asaba FHC judgement does not affect his candidacy.

    “He did the right thing by attempting to seek leave of court to appeal the judgment as an impacted person but the Court of Appeal in Benin shut the door on him for sleeping on his right for the last six months and awarded cost against him.

    “Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, the valid candidate and Senator-elect for Delta Central awaits calmly his Certificate of Return from INEC.”

     

  • INEC presents Certificates of Return to Bauchi governor-elect, 31 Lawmakers

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has presented Certificate of Return to Bauchi State Governor-elect, Sen. Bala  Mohammed, and his deputy, Sen. Baba Tela on Saturday, 30 March.

    Certificate of return was also presented to 31 elected members of the State House of Assembly.

    The Presentation took place at the Mahmud conference hall, INEC , headquarters Bauchi.

    Speaking at the ceremony, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Bauchi, Gombe and Yobe states, Alhaji Vsaid the ceremony was in compliance with the Commission’s mandate to present certificate of return to all elected members.

    Arfo assured of the commitment of the commission to conduct free and fair elections in the future as  he called on elected officials to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.

    Read Also: INEC presents Certificates of Return to governor-elect, 25 others in Gombe

    He also charged the Governor-elect to see his election as an opportunity to serve the people of the state and not members of his party alone.

    The State Governor elect, Sen. Bala Muhammad in his acceptance speech, promised to justify the confidence reposed in him and his deputy by working with all the stakeholders as he extended hands of fellowship to all who contested and conceded defeat.

    Earlier, the Bauchi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi appealed to those presented with the certificate of return to justify the confidence reposed in them.

    Ibrahim Abdullahi assured that INEC would improve on its operation.

    ”Let me remind you, as the electorates that turn out in mass to ensure that you were  elected, you should know also that they have huge expectations and demands from you. Do as much as you can to reciprocate their kind gesture”. He said.

    Among the 31 elected members of the State House of Assembly, two members of the All Progressive Congress, APC,  Speaker , Kawuwa Shehu Damina and House Leader, Tijjani Aliyu were absent at the presentation.

     

  • Sanwo-Olu, Hamzat to get certificates of return Friday -INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has shifted the date for the issuance of Certificates of Return to the Governor-elect, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat.

    The INEC Spokesman, Mr. Femi Akinbiyi, who disclosed this in statement on Monday, said that the event, earlier scheduled for Wednesday would now hold on Friday.

    Read also:UPDATED: INEC declares Ganduje winner of Kano rerun

    Akinbiyi, however, said that the commission would later announce a new date for the issuance of the certificates to the 40 lawmakers-elect of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

    “The event will take place at the INEC Lagos office, 6, Birrel Avenue Sabo-Yaba at 11a.m.

    “A new date will be announced later for the presentation of Certificates of Return to the 40 elected members of Lagos State House of Assembly,” Akinbiyi said.

    INEC had on March 21, in a statement signed by its Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Sam Olumekun, announced that it would present the certificates to the newly- elected officers on March 27.

    According to Olumekun, the presentation is in conformity with section 75 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sanwo-Olu, of All Progressives Congress (APC), polled 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 206,141 votes, and other contestants in the March 9 Governorship Election.

    INEC declared Sanwo-Olu winner of the poll on March 10, with candidates of All Progressives Congress (APC) winning all the 40 state constituencies in the state.