Dominion Anosike, returning
officer for Tafawa Balewa local government area in the gubernatorial election
of Bauchi state, says her life is under threat.
The election was declared
inconclusive over the cancellation of votes from the local government.
Mohammed Kyari, returning officer
for the governorship election, had cancelled the election of Tafawa Balewa LGA,
citing the failure of Anosike to use the prescribed form to enter the result
collated across the local government.
She had explained that another
form was used because suspected thugs snatched the result sheet of Tafawa
Balewa.
“There was violence and I was
forced to announce results under duress. We had to use photocopies of other
forms to collate results because we were forced under duress to announce the
results,” she said.
“My electoral officer and the
myself were collating results and about 11pm on Saturday we had collated for
six wards. Around 6:00 am hoodlums came and started throwing stones. They were
violent and insisted that we must announce the results but l managed to
escape.”
Bala Mohammed, candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had garnered 40,000 votes against Mohammed
Abubakar, incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), who had 29,000 votes in Tafawa Balewa.
But Kyari said the excuse given
by Anosike was not tenable. When results from the other 19 LGAs were summed,
Mohammed was ahead of Abubakar with 4,059 votes, while 45,312 votes were
cancelled.
The APC candidate scored 465,453
votes against the PDP’s 469,512 votes.
In line with the rule of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a winner could not be
declared while a supplementary election was fixed for March 23.
But the PDP described the
cancellation of votes as unjust, insisting that it was done to please the
ruling party.
Considering the weight of the
allegations, INEC set up a committee to look into the issue.
The committee had invited
Anosike, who in a letter dated March 13, told Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the
commission, that she preferred to testify in Abuja, not Bauchi.
Anosike attributed this to what
she described as threats to her life.
“I superintended over the above
election in Tafawa Balewa LGA as the Returning Officer and I believe that there
will be need for your committee to find out from me what transpired at the
collation centre that led to the cancellation of the result by the Resident
Electoral Commissioner for Bauchi State,” she wrote.
“The purpose of this letter to
your good offices, is to indicate my desire to appear before the team in
another location, preferably Abuja- as doing that in Bauchi State would
constitute a threat to my life, as I have already been threatened with instant
death, should I be found anywhere in or near Bauchi State.”
The
committee will submit its report any moment from now.
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The picture you are using for the current INEC chairman is that of Attahiru Jega.
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