Election Observer Groups Ask INEC to Review Kaduna Guber Polls

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The coalition of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Accredited Observer Groups for Credible Election has urged the commission to review the governorship election results declared for Kaduna State.

The National Coordinator of Centre For Strategy Ethics and Values, Romans Azubuike, made the appeal while speaking on behalf of the INEC accredited observers at a news conference in Abuja yesterday.

He said the INEC national headquarters should review the Kaduna State governorship election results. The observers noted that the election went well in Kaduna State but that at the point of collation, the results were not tallying with what was uploaded to the INEC IReV portal.

The Returning Officer of the Kaduna State governorship election, Prof Lawal Bilbis, had declared the APC candidate, Uba Sani, winner.

Bilbis said Sani polled 730,002 to defeat his rival, Isah Ashiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 719,196.

The breakdown of the results further showed that APC won in 10 local government areas of Zaria, Kaduna South, Kaduna North, Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Sabon Gari, Igabi, Ikara, Kauru, and Kubau, while PDP won 13 local government areas of Makarfi, Kachia, Chikun, Kagarko, Jaba, Jema’a, Kaura, Zango Kataf, Soba, Kudan, Chikun, Kaura, Sanga, and Lere.

However, the observers said: “We are calling on INEC to review the election results for the gubernatorial election in Kaduna State.

“The election was transparent until at the point of collation where things began to change.

  “The process was transparent at the beginning but in Southern Kaduna, Birnin Gwari and some other local government areas, the collation should be reviewed because they couldn’t transfer the result to the INEC portal in real time.

  “So, we are using this opportunity to call on INEC to review the election results, particularly the gubernatorial election,” Azubuike added.