The Kogi Central Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate, Barr. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has written to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to review the delaration and return made by the returning officer, Prof. Rotimi Ajayi, for the Kogi Central senatorial election.
On February 28, the electoral body said Sadiku-Ohere garnered 52,132 votes against Natasha’s 51,763 votes to clinch the seat, a difference of 369 votes between them.
In a letter written by her lawyers on March 1, 2023, the PDP senatorial candidate said the APC candidate, Engr. Abubakar Sadiku Ohere, was wrongly declared as the winner of the senatorial election with 52,132 votes while she was was wrongly “credited” with 51,763 votes.
The letter noted that a careful and meticulous review of the election results from the duplicate of the result sheets revealed that votes were manipulated and adjusted in favor of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
The letter further noted that contrary to section 70 of the 2022 Electoral Act, in Ganaja Township Ward in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State, results of the PDP senatorial candidate in Polling Unit 009, 049 and 046 were manipulated in favour of the APC senatorial candidate.
“As against 1,135 votes wrongly recorded for APC, what ought to have been recorded for APC in the three polling units is only 202 votes and the excess manipulative and fictitious 933 votes would not have formed part of the election result in the Polling Units while PDP would have earned 1,073 as against the 77 votes recorded for our client,” the letter reads.
“If the 993 votes wrongly credited to the APC candidate is deducted from 52,132 votes wrongly credited to him, his total scored would have been 51,199 votes and if the 996 votes wrongly deducted from Our Client’s votes was added to 51,763 votes, she would have recorded 52,729. In the circumstance Our Client would have won the election with 1,530 votes.
Relying on Section 65 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 to demand for a review of declaration, the PDP senatorial candidate called on the INEC to review the declaration of results by the Returnkng Officer.
“The declaration was contrary to Sections 51(2) & (3), 66 and 70 of the 2022 Electoral Act, we have our Client’s firm instructions pursuant to Section 65 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 to demand and hereby demand for a review of the results and declare our Client as the winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial District election conducted on 25th February, 2023,” the letter added.
