The Nation Newspaper

Tag: results

  • APGA calls for cancellation of results

    The Abia State factional governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Reagan Ufomba has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to nullify the results of the three council areas earlier cancelled by the returning officer.

    Chief Ufomba, who directed his supporters to vote for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari during the presidential elections because of the way the political pendulum was swinging, said Prof. Benjamin Ozumba was in canceling the results.

    Speaking with our correspondent at his country home at Umuogelle Ntigha in

    Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state, Ufomba said the results of the three council areas of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isiala Ngwa North should remain cancelled because of several electoral malpractices.

    He said there were massive rigging, illegal thumb printing of ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes by political thugs, shooting and monetary inducement of voters, with stockfish and other materials to force them to vote against their wish.

    He said the re-run scheduled for tomorrow by INEC in some polling units in nine local government areas of the state is not enough.

    “There should be total cancellation of the entire election held in the three council areas of the state for justice to have been done,” he said.

    Chief Ufomba said: “Our party is insisting that the election results in the three council areas be canceled, as the returning officer is right in law to cancel the

    results and has no right to reverse himself.”

    He alleged that the reversal of the decision of the returning officer was as a result of the visit of the state governor, Chief Theodore Orji to the Resident Electoral Officer and the returning officer, stressing that the governor has no right to be at the collation centre.”

    Continuing, he said: “The returning officer has the right to cancel any election result, as he is the chief returning officer for the state, even if the results have been announced at the local government level.

    “The visit of the governor to the collation centre changed everything; I am sure that the returning officer must have seen something or heard something beyond his expectation which made him to reverse himself. He cannot appropriate and reprobate at the same time.”

    The APGA governorship candidate thanked the people for voting for his party despite all odds, adding that the April 25 re-run has provided an avenue for their party to win the election on a landslide, urging them to come out en masse that day to cast their votes for his party.

  • Jega: INEC helpless on Rivers election results

    Jega: INEC helpless on Rivers election results

    •Explains why he rejects reappointment

    Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Attahiru Jega yesterday explained why the agency could not cancel some election results.

    Foreign and local election observers, including civil society organisations (CSOs), have queried the results of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Abia, Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states.

    A coalition of CSOs – the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room – in its post-election analysis on April 13, said reports submitted by its members, who monitored elections in three states, showed that the elections were “fraught with irregularities.’’  It expressed concern “about the conduct of the elections in the three states because there are grounds to question the credibility of the results”.

    The Situation Room urged INEC to take steps to authenticate the final collated results from the three states against the polling unit results and make a reasoned judgment about them.

    Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a dialogue session by the Situation Room, Jega justified the reason his commission could not cancel results from the state as is being requested.  He blamed this on some inadequacies in the Elecoral Act.

    Jega decried the fact that the INEC in Abuja has little control on the state offices, noting that Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) were given enormous powers in the Electoral Act.

    He noted that once a Returning officer declares any election result, “whether the result is false or doctored, there is nothing else we can do about it than to ask the candidates to go the the tribunal to challenge such result.

    “There is nothing in the legal framework that gives the INEC chairman the power to cancel results from anywhere following alleged irregularities. We have no power to cancel elections results once returns have been made.”

    He said his commission also lacked sufficient evidence to support claims of irregularities in Rivers.

    “On the petition on irregularities in Rivers, the commission sent three national commissioners to investigate. Some people don’t want elections to hold, they are the ones calling for cancellation. We investigated the allegation of fake result sheets in Rivers, our reports showed there was nothing like that,” Jega said.

    He said there was no way INEC could have conducted the run-off within seven days as provided for in the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

    “I heaved a sigh of relief when the election did not result to a run-off. That would have occassioned a big constitutional crisis. This is because the constitution only made provision for seven days for such poll. You and I know there was no way we would have been able to conduct a run-off within seven days”.

    He regretted that efforts by INEC to have the Electoral Act and the Constitution amended before the 2015 elections failed. “It would have helped if we had got the amendments,” Jega said adding:

    “This is why I emphasise that amendments to the electoral laws should be done in good time. We could have further sanitised the electoral process if we had got some amendments we required in the Electoral Act.”

    Jega also explained why he will not accept any offer of reappointment as INEC chairman. He plans to do something else, he said.

    He attributed the success recorded in the last elections to the deployment of technology, adding that subsequent elections can be better if the success is sustained.

    Said Jega: “Evidently, some people did not want us to use the Card Reader machine. That was why we allowed manual election in some few places where the Card Reader did not function well during the presidential election.

    “Some people were already saying we deliberately deployed Card Reader machine that will not work in some zones. And to prove them wrong, we instructed that manual voting takes place in such places. But some people wanted to take advantage of that.

    “But in the governorship elections, we ensured that the Card Reader machines worked. We warned the RECs they will be held responsible for any Card Reader that did not work properly.”

    Jega added that about 20,000 permanent voter cards were not produced, because the person involved was arrested by the police for allegation that he gave the card reader’s password to a political party.

    The INEC chairman admitted that his agency did not do enough to prosecute electoral offenders during the 2011 elections because, according to him, “we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of offenders”.

    He expressed delight that INEC was in partnership with the police and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to prosecute electoral offenders.

    Jega urged those with evidence on electoral offences to bring such to the commission, assuring that such will be investigated and tried in court.

    Earlier, Situation Room’s Coordinator and Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) Clement Nwankwo, restated the group’s position on the elections in Rivers State.

    He said: “Situation Room has expressed its concern about the conduct of the elections in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, where there are good grounds to question the credibility of the election results in both states. There are also concerns about Abia State, which recorded multiple cases of electoral misconduct.”

    Nwankwo said there were complaints about Resident Electoral Commissioners’ relationship with politicians.

    Country Representative of Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Nigeria Catherine Weiss, hailed INEC for a job well done.

     

  • GOVERNORSHIP AND HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS RESULTS

    GOVERNORSHIP AND HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS RESULTS

    Christians urge Buhari to tackle religious disharmony, corruption

    The Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN) has called on  President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to tackle corruption, electricity and religious disharmony.

    President of the council  Emmanuel Udofia made the call yesterday at a briefing on the 2015 elections.

    Udofia said: “If you pick one of these and leave the other, Nigerians will still be in trouble. For instance, if Buhari wants to have a successful government, he ýmust make sure there is religious harmony to have peace nationwide.

    “If corruption is not dealt with, I would not say Nigeria will not move forward but it won’t be the level we expected because corruption is not only in government but everywhere.

    “In any nation where electricity is poorly supplied, there will be under-development. With constant power, people at the grassroots can create work for themselves, which will prevent migration to the city centre.”

    The clergy, who said that the council engaged about 2,000 election observers across the nation, placed voters’ turn out to be 42 per cent.

    He said the elections were orderly and credible, but urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to intensify voter education.

    Udofia identified the need for INEC to commence a fresh electoral process, such as voter registration, advocacy, among others ahead of 2019 poll.

    He said it should no wait until a few months to the next elections.

     
     

  • Abia APC rejects results

    Abia APC rejects results

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Dr. Nyerere Chineye Anyim, has said the party has rejected the results of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    Speaking in Umuahia, he said they rejected the results based on malpractices, fraud, mutilation of result sheets and abuse of the electorate by security men.

    Anyim said the party expressed shock and disappointment about the results, adding that it was the worst election held in the state.

    He hailed the peaceful way the people comported themselves.

    The APC governorship candidate said the idea of mobilising security men to intimidate the electorate meant that there was no election, as results were manipulated at Ikwuano and Ugwunagbo, adding: “Result sheets were not brought.”

    He alleged that the government took the result sheets and went to the local government headquarters to write the results, especially in Obingwa Local Government.

    Anyim said what happened in Obingwa also took place in Ohafia “where about 20,000 people were accredited, but the results showed that 28,000 people voted, which is a fraud.”

    He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconsider the result of the presidential election as announced by the Returning officer and enjoined it to investigate the result.

    The APC Chairman, Mr. Donatus Nwankpa, advised the public to be peaceful but proactive, stressing that the task of cleaning the country is for all.

    He said: “We don’t want a breakdown of law and order in the state. The anomaly, which occurred during last weekend’s election, will never happen again.”

     

     

  • INEC sets up panel to verify results

    FEAR has reportedly gripped candidates and supporters of parties in Abia State. This followed the decision of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Selina Oko, to set up a panel to verify results of the three senatorial districts and some federal constituencies.
    Some of the affected areas include Abia North, Abia South and Abia Central where the opposition parties alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) manipulated the results.
    The Nation learnt that although the parties adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as their presidential candidate, they were irked by attempts by the PDP to influence the outcome of the polls, which they said did not tally with the certified results their agents obtained from INEC officials.
    We gathered that it was based on the allegations and others that the REC decided to review the results.
    Sources said since the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, directed a review of the results, some candidates, whose areas were affected, had become frantic.

  • RESULTS declared in states

    STATE APC PDP
    •Kaduna 1,127,760 484,085
    •Kwara 302,146 132,602
    •Oyo 528,620 303,376
    •Kogi 264,851 149,987
    •Kano 1,903,999 215,779
    •Enugu 14,157 553,003
    •Nasarawa 236,838 273,460
    •FCT 146,399 157,195
    •Jigawa 885,988 142,904
    •Ogun 308,290 207,950
    •Osun 383,603 249,929
    •Ondo 299,889 251,368
    •Ekiti 120,331 176,466
    •Katsina 1,345,441 98,937
    •Abia 13,394 368,303
    •Anambra 17,926 660,762
    •A/Ibom 58,411 953,304
    •Imo 133,253 559,185
    •Plateau 429,140 549,615
    •Adamawa 374,701 251,664
    •Gombe 361,245 96,873
    •Lagos 792,460 632,327
    •Rivers 69,238 1,487,075
    •Kebbi 567,883 100,972
    •Sokoto 671,926 152,199
    •Bayelsa 5,195 391,201
    •Edo 208,469 286,969
    15 out of 17 Councils
    •Taraba 227,563 247,827
    13 out of 16 Councils
    •C/River 24,737 390,011
    17 out of 18 Councils

  • APC warns against announcement of fake election results

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned against any attempt to tamper with the results of the elections held nationwide on Saturday.
    The party said Nigerians have voted peacefully and massively and they know who they have voted for.
    In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it has the authentic results from every polling unit where voting took place on Saturday, and will not accept anything contrary to those signed results.
    ”We have always said we will accept the result of any free, fair and transparent elections. We stand by that avowal. However, what we will not accept – and which we are sure Nigerians themselves will reject – is any move to rewrite the results and thwart the will of the people under any guise. We will not accept that.

    ”We have heard of the desperate moves to cancel the results in areas where the APC has beaten the PDP embarrassingly. Nigerians will definitely not accept that,” APC said.

    The party alleged that it was aware of the ongoing efforts to force Electoral Officers and Presiding Officers in Imo State, some of whom are being picked up by the military as we write, to rewrite the results of the elections in the state.

    ”We have the results from every polling unit in Imo State and we know that we have won in over 80 per cent in the presidential election. So there must be no shenanigans,” it warned.

    APC also alleged the same attempts are being made in Sokoto, Enugu, Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos and other states, wondering why anyone will be seeking to reverse the results that are already settled.

    ”In the Nsukka Local Government Area, INEC officials, instead of collating results, handed over the exercise to PDP Nsukka zone to write. They holed up inside ADADA HOUSE (a Local Government guest house) to write results and change figures, and were provided with security by the police. APC candidates and agents were chased away. In collaboration with INEC, they refused to let the card readers function and no result sheets came to most polling booths.

    ”In Lagos, they have yet to announce the result of the Apapa Local Government which has been ready since yesterday, apparently in a move to manipulate the outcome. Those who voted will not agree with any attempt to steal their votes,” the party warned.

  • Alumni to check poor WASSCE results

    Alumni to check poor WASSCE results

    Old students of Baptist Boys High School (BBHS), Abeokuta, where former President Olusegun Obasanjo had his secondary education, are not happy about the state of their alma mater.

    They are worried about the poor performance of pupils of the 92-year old college in public examinations, particularly the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

    The past administration of Ogun State returned schools to the missions about five years ago. However, a section of BBHS is being run by the government, while the other is managed by the Baptist mission, the owner-church.

    Today, the total population of the school, whether under public or mission, is 2,254 pupils, comprising 1,334 juniors and 920 seniors.

    The old boys regret that the BBHS, which takes pride in its motto, Nulli Secondus (second to none) and which has also given Nigeria a president, governor and some of the best professionals in medicine, engineering, science and education, has degenerated so much as evidenced in its examination records.

    Principal, Senior School, Mr Folabi Lampejo, said only 38 percent of the 272 candidates who wrote the May/June 2014 WASSCE made credits in at least five subjects, including Mathematics and English, the minimum benchmark.

    He said the result was a significant improvement compared to 2013, where about 28 percent passed and earlier years.

    When they gathered in the school for the 92nd Founder’s Day-cum annual congress last Saturday, the old boys argued that though the national average in the WASSCE is not up to 30 per cent, pupils of BBHS ought to stand out.

    They said measures should be taken not only to reverse the poor performance but also sustain the school’s tradition of excellence.

    The immediate past National President of the BBHS Old Boys Association, Ven. Sola Ladipo-Ajayi, in identifying the causative factors, said the school’s environment had completely changed from what they were familiar with many decades ago.  He said with the present situation, it would be difficult, if not impossible for the teachers and pupils to give their best.

    Ladipo-Ajayi noted that though the government claims to provide free education, for about two years, textbooks and other writing materials were not supplied to BBHS and other schools.  He wondered how a school could be run without books.

    However, efforts by the old boys to rescue the school are already yielding results.  One of them, the Dr Olatunde Olusesi Scheme, has been credited for the improved performance in the 2014 WASSCE.

    The scheme named after its initiator, Olatunde Olusesi,  president of the USA/Canada chapter of the association, was adopted after an online debate involving over 1,000 old boys.

    Olulesi recommended that teachers in core subjects (English language and mathematics) be employed to prepare the SS3 pupils for WASSCE and NECO SSCE at the expense of the association – with the pupils being fed during the tutorials.

    The Principal said the 38 per cent passed recorded by the school in 2014 WASSCE was still better than the national average.

    He added that performance in the 2014 NECO SSCE was even far better – all thanks to the scheme.

    “In the same period, the school presented 22 students for NECO examinations and all of them passed and can enter any tertiary institutions with their results,” he said.

    In addition to the scheme, the old boys have introduced a one-on-one mentoring scheme called the Global Mentoring Program.  It involves each pupil being paired with an old boy.

    Olusesi, who is a lecturer at the New York University, said the BBHS mentoring programme would provide guidance and support to current pupils, promote discipline, culture of excellence, and increase the pupils’ motivation to succeed as well as create opportunities for the old boys to give back to their alma mater.

    “The mentors are expected to serve as positive role models for their assigned students; develop enduring relationships with them; instil hope and confidence in the assigned boys; provide academic and career guide; as well as voluntary financial assistance to them in furtherance of their career growth,” he said.

    Olusesi explained that the intervention became necessary as some of the pupils live in the host communities – Sage, Kugba, Adatan, among others in Abeokuta North Local government, where their parents are petty traders, taxi  drivers and artisans who rarely care whether their children do well in school or not.

    Other old students seeking support for the school include the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Michael Adedotun and Muiz Olalekan Mudaishiru (Lagos chapter).

    Prof. Ajao Adelekan emerged the new National Predident of the association during the event; while Otunba Yomi Ajayi-Smith, Managing Director of Ijebu-Ode based Rolak hotel and Suites, was one of the recipients of the association’s distinguished merit awards.

     

  • ‘Demand accurate lab test results’

    Nigerians have been urged to start demanding accurate and reliable test results from medical laboratories.

    Speaking in Abuja at the induction of new members of Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSC), the Registrar and chief executive of the council, Prof Anthony Emeribe noted that accurate and reliable test results help save the life of the patient, while inaccurate ones could lead to death.

    He urged that people desist from walking into any facility and submitting themselves for investigation without asking questions as to whether the lab is approved or whether the personnel are licensed to perform such important investigations.

    “We must all accept responsibility for our health and this includes demanding as of right that the facility to which we are submitting ourselves is duly approved by the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, that it is manned by the right calibre of personnel, and that it has the quality equipment, regents, kits, chemicals and consumables otherwise known as in-vitro diagnostics. That will go a long way in ensuring that the results emanating from such a facility can be relied upon,” he noted.

    Emeribe regretted that some patients, including the educated and well-off in the society, still continue to walk into any facility no matter how awkward-looking, how dirty and ill-equipped, simply because there is a signboard announcing that it is a “computerized laboratory”. “They won’t even bother to ask relevant questions in spite of warning signs that the place might not be fit for purpose,” he noted, adding that, “the quack medical laboratory scientist would not continue to operate once he starts receiving probing questions regarding the facility”. He said the law of supply and demand also applies in the delivery of medical laboratory services to the extent that the patients through their insistence on getting quality lab results can make the practice lucrative for the conscientious practitioners while helping to weed out the quacks and unserious by turning their back on such people.

    As part of the measures to sanitize the medical laboratory services sector, Emeribe said MLSCN had put in place a National Taskforce on Laboratory and In-vitro Diagnostics Inspection  team,  which according to him, will soon commence work to ensure compliance and flush out undesirable elements whose nefarious activities are hurting innocent citizens.

    “It can no longer be business as usual in the medical laboratory services sector as we are determined to do whatever is required to ensure that only approved facilities with the right calibre of personnel, equipment and kits or consumables continue to function. Facilities which have nothing to hide are often eager to get due approval and are also quick to display evidence of such for their patients to see unlike those, which should not be there in the first place,” he said while assuring citizens that Council will continue to work relentless to overcome any challenge militating against quality medical laboratory services delivery in the country.

    He urged the inductees to always abide by Council Code of Practice and Ethics and keep abreast of rapid developments in lab diagnosis and services through mandatory CPD required for annual licensure.

     

  • Anger trails results’ release

    Frustration and anger have trailed the release of results of NDII part-time students of Mass Communication Department of the Federal Polytechnic Offa (OFFA POLY). The results were released last Monday, months after the students wrote the examination.

    When the results were pasted at the department on Monday evening, information spread through the social media, urging the students to check their results. A few students, who live around the campus, rushed to the school for the result.

    But on that Tuesday morning, the results got ‘disappeared’ on the notice board it was pasted, resulting in disappointment and anger by students, who came to the campus to check their results.

    They were rumours that the results had been torn by a set of aggrieved students, because of their poor performance. But CAMPUSLIFE learnt that the department withdrew the results because of errors from the office in charge of results. The results were pasted with candidates’ names and scores, instead of matriculation number and grades, which is the normal culture.

    While the students await the corrected version of the results, many of them wondered why it took the management months for the release. They urged the department to make the correction properly and make the results available on the Internet for easy access.