The supplementary elections scheduled in Bauchi and Adamawa states will hold tomorrow, the Independent National Electoral Commission has said.
According to the electoral commission yesterday, the litigation and order only affect the collation of results for the governorship election in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area.
“Consequently, the supplementary elections will proceed as scheduled on Saturday, 23 March in the other 15 Local Government Areas of Bauchi State as well as the Kirfi State Constituency Supplementary Election in Kirfi Local Government Area,” the Commission said.
Also, INEC said, despite Adamawa State High Court injunction restraining it from proceeding with the supplementary election, the “elections will hold in Nassarawo/Binyeri State Constituency in Mayo–Belwa Local Government Area where the election had to be countermanded following the death of a candidate before the polls, as well as the supplementary State Constituency election and Uba/Gaya State Constituency in Hong Local Government Area.”
Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against plans by INEC to conduct rerun governorship election in some polling units across Bauchi State, tomorrow.
The PDP, in a letter to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, argued why there should not be any rerun governorship poll in Bauchi, until the Commission has completed collation of results in the 20 local government areas (LGAs) in the state.
In a March 21 letter, jointly signed by the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and the National Secretary, Senator Ibrahim Umaru Tsauri, the party implored INEC to call off the supplementary poll, until the governorship result from Tafawa Balewa local government area has been collated.
The PDP said: “Yesterday, your Resident Electoral Commissioner, Bauchi, officially and announced that a court had given an order stopping collation of the results from Tafawa Balewa but that re-run would be conducted in some Polling Units in the state where elections were cancelled on Saturday March 23.
“At this juncture, it is important to note that the re-run or supplementary election can only be ripe and determined upon conclusion of collation of all the results from the 20 LGAs in the state and the margin between the winner and the runner-up is known.
“This is the position of the law as as provided in the Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of elections specifically paragraphs 33 (a)& (e),4 (e).
““We, therefore, demand immediate suspension of the supplementary election scheduled for tomorrow until collation of results from Tafawa Balewa has been conclusively carried out.”
In a related development, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has alleged there is an attempt to implicate him in a criminal act in Bauchi state.
Dogara stated this in a petition to the acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, which was copied to other security agencies.
In the petition, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Abuja, yesterday, the speaker said he had information that there are plans to use motorcycles and cars, with his picture and the logo of the PDP, to commit crime in Bauchi and link them to him. – The Sun.
