INEC shifts review of Abia Guber results to Abuja
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
The battle to determine the winner of the March 18, 2023 Governorship election in Abia State has shifted to Abuja.
This is because the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), changed its plan of sending its officials from Abuja to Abia, allegedly for security reasons.
In changing its original plan, INEC asked its Abia Staff connected with the Governorship election in Obingwa Local Government Area, to proceed to Abuja today.
INEC had on Monday, March 20, 2023, announced that it was suspending collation of the governorship election result from Obingwa LGA, saying that the Commission needed to thoroughly screen results from the area because thugs invaded its office there while collation was on-going.
Before suspension of the collation of the governorship election results, INEC had announced results from 16 local government areas, with the Labour Party Governorship Candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, winning in 10 local governments while the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Okey Ahiwe, had won in five local governments.
The Administrative Secretary of INEC in Abia, Clement Oha, who read a letter from the INEC headquarters announcing suspension of collation of Obingwa governorship election result, said a National Commissioner from Abuja would be sent to Abia today, Tuesday, March 21, 2023, to review the Obingwa result and conclude the process so that the final result of Abia governorship result would be declared.
But The Oracle Today learnt that the INEC national headquarters last night sent a counter directive that the relevant officials connected with the Obingwa poll debacle proceed to Abuja today, Tuesday, March 21, 2023.
Sources said that the counter directive was based on fears that the thugs who allegedly invaded Obingwa may have infiltrated Umuahia.
