On November 21, 2015, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the Kogi State governorship election. At the end of the exercise, it (INEC) declared the election inconclusive.
According to the results declared by the Returning Officer, Prof Emmanuel Kucha, Vice Chancellor, University of Markurdi, Prince Abubakar Audu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 240,867 votes while Idris Wada of the People’s Democratic Party scored 199,514 votes.
Prof Kucha said the margin of votes between Messrs Audu and Wada was 41,353; and the election was inconclusive because the number of registered voters in 91 polling units in 18 local government areas where election was cancelled was 49,953. That figure, according to the learned professor, was higher than the 41,353 votes with which Prince Audu was ahead of Mr. Wada. The returning officer further said that by INEC guidelines, no return could be made for the election until a supplementary election was held in the areas where election was cancelled. It is significant to note that Prof Kachu based his decision on INEC guidelines and not on any section of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Nigerian Constitution has prescribed the conditions to be satisfied in order to win a Governorship election. For the avoidance of doubts, section 179 (2) thereof provides:
179(2). A candidate for an election to the Office of Governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where there being two or more candidates –
(a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election and
(b) he has not less one-quarter the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the state.
Before the official announcement of the results of the election, many media establishments monitoring the election had declared Prince Abubakar Audu winner of the election. And, on the basis of the final results announced by the returning officer, it became clear that Prince Abubakar Audu already satisfied the conditions stipulated under Section 179(2) of the Constitution. As at the time the returning officer announced the final results and declaration that the election was inconclusive, there was no indication that Prince Audu was dead. In any event, he never mentioned Prince Audu’s death as any reason for the inconclusiveness of the election. Nevertheless, for some inexplicable reasons, it was convenient for the returning officer to close his eyes to the extant provisions of the Constitution and follow INEC guidelines. The consequence of INEC’s decision is the mess into which Kogi State has been thrown. This has been rightly described in some quarters as political and constitutional conundrum. Now, virtually all the political parties that participated in the election, including those that won only 1,000 votes have made their ways to the election tribunal to challenge the thoughtless pronouncement of the returning officer.
Two weeks after the Kogi election, the Bayelsa election held. It was as keenly contested as Kogi’s. In both states, two ex-governors slugged it out with the incumbents. In Bayelsa, incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson contested on the platform of PDP while the APC featured former governor Timipre Sylva.
The fate of the first round of election in Bayelsa was the same as Kogi. At the close of the election, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Baritor Kpagih, cancelled the poll in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area because of violence, excess voting, ballot-snatching and hostage-taking of the officials. Again, a return could not be made because, there was a margin of 33,154 margin of win by Dickson over the runner-up, Sylva. The votes of some 120,827 registered voters in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area were outstanding.
One clear distinction between the inconclusive elections of Kogi and Bayelsa was that, in respect of Kogi, the results of all the polling units, wards and local government areas were announced, none was outstanding. Even the results of the wards and local government areas of the 91 polling units where supplementary election was slated to hold had been accepted and announced by the returning officer. The local government areas won by Prince Audu were: Ofu, Idah, Kabba/Bunu, Yagba East, Yagba West, Adavi, Kotonkarfe, Ankpa, Okehi, Ajaokuta, Ijumu, Olamaboro, Igalamela, Bassa, Lokoja and Ibaji. Governor Wada was victorious in only five local government areas, namely; Ogori-Magongo, Omala, Okene, Dekina and Mopa-Amuro. The foregoing, on its own, suggested to many people that the election in the state was duly concluded, contrary to the declaration of INEC. The purported supplementary election could therefore be rightly considered unnecessary, needless, wasteful, superfluous and gratuitous.
As regards the Bayelsa election, the result of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area was not announced and could, indeed, be rightly considered inconclusive. Consequently, not much noise was associated with the decision of INEC to hold a supplementary election in Bayelsa State.
There is no doubt that the demise of Prince Abubakar Audu was shocking. The decision of INEC to declare the election of Kogi inconclusive undoubtedly complicated the already complex situation. The real point of controversy now is whether or not INEC should have declared the election inconclusive after announcing the results of all the local government areas. It may also be asked: should INEC have ordered fresh elections in the affected 91 polling units? It should be recalled here that from the available records, only 38,000 registered voters had Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in the 91 polling units out of which only 19,000 were accredited. These facts were not disputed by INEC. It follows that if 19,000 votes were added to Wada’s votes, such votes could not have altered the results of the election in Kogi. The result would still have been in favour of Prince Audu. Nevertheless, INEC insisted in holding a supplementary election in the state. At the end, less than 13,000 persons voted with Yahaya Bello, whom APC used to substitute Abubakar Audu, scoring only 6,000 votes.
Now, the Bayelsa supplementary election held on Saturday, January 9. The candidate of PDP, Mr. Seriake Dickson polled 134,998 votes to emerge the winner. APC candidate, Mr. Timipre Sylva scored 86,852. A total number of 53,000 votes were said to have been cancelled, while the difference between Dickson and APC is 48,000. In other words, cancelled votes exceeded the difference between the winner and the runner-up. Notwithstanding this fact, INEC proceeded to announce a winner!
What happened in Bayelsa State has exposed the lies and hypocrisy of INEC. It demonstrates clearly that the decision of INEC on Kogi must have been a product of some political undercurrent or the lack of capacity of INEC. Indeed, Bayelsa’s case has now prompted reasonable men to ask questions.
* Why did INEC declare the election of Kogi State inconclusive when the results of all the local government areas in the State had been announced by the returning officer and one of the contestants had fulfilled the conditions stipulated under Section 179(2) of the Constitution?
* Why did INEC insist in holding supplementary election in Kogi when the number of accredited voters or holders of PVCs fell for below the difference between the two leading candidates?
* Why did INEC not conduct another supplementary election in Bayelsa when it found that the number of cancelled votes exceeded the difference between Dickson (the winner) and Sylva (the loser)?
* Is it still not possible that the pendulum of victory in Bayelsa’s election swings in favour of Sylva?
These and many other questions beg for answers and agitate the minds of an objective observer. We may never get answers to these questions from INEC. Hopefully, the tribunals will be up to the task to unravel the mysteries.
– Olarinde Yesufu is a Legal Analyst
