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Yekini Jimoh Lokoja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), senatorial candidate for Kogi Central, Barr. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has called for a review of the February 25 poll, insisting that she won the election.
In the application for review of the declaration and return made by the returning officer for the Kogi Central senatorial elections, by her solicitors, C.O Ogbu, Esq, dated Tuesday, 1st March 2023, and addressed to the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, which was made available to Guardian in Lokoja, said this was pursuant to section 65 of the electoral act, 2022.
In the letter, she alleged that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Engr. Abubakar Sadiku Ohere was wrongly declared as the winner of the Kogi central senatorial election, insisting that she won the said election.
The letter reads in part “We act as Solicitors to Chief Barr. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for the Kogi Central Senatorial Election held on the 25th day of February 2023 (hereinafter referred to as Our Client) on whose express instruction we write as follows.
“In the said election, Engr. Abubakar Sadiku Ohere, the Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), was wrongly returned with 52,132 votes and declared the winner of the election in the Senatorial District while Our Client was wrongly credited with 51,763 votes. It is important to state that the declaration was made on the 28th day of February 2023.
“It is our position that after a careful and meticulous review of the election results from the duplicate of the result sheets, we discovered that votes were manipulated and adjusted in favor of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
“In Ganaja Township Ward in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State, The Polling Unit affected by manipulation of the step-by-step recording of polls contrary to section 70 are as follows:
“In Polling Unit 009 on Form EC8 A(I), the votes scored by APC was 105 while that of PDP was 751 but when the votes were transferred to Form EC8B(I), 205 votes were recorded for APC and 51 votes was recorded for PDP, the effect of the manipulation led to wrongful crediting of APC with 100 votes while PDP was deprived of 700 votes.
“In Polling Unit 049 on Form EC8 A(I), the votes scored by APC was 46 votes while that of PDP was 210 but when the votes were transferred to Form EC8B(I), 290 votes were recorded for APC and 10 votes was recorded for PDP, the effect of the manipulation led to wrongful crediting of APC with 244 votes while PDP was deprived of 200 votes.
“In Polling Unit 046 on Form EC8 A(I), the votes scored by APC was 51 while that of PDP was 112 but when the votes were transferred to Form EC8B(I), 640 votes were recorded for APC and 16 votes was recorded for PDP, the effect of the manipulation led to wrongful crediting of APC with 589 votes while PDP was deprived of 96 votes.
She noted that the information contained in Forms EC8 As, 8B, and 8C, is the same as uploaded on the commission server, saying that From the above, it is obvious that if the recordings were properly done and correctly imputed, “our clients would have won the election in the Senatorial District because as against 1,135 votes wrongly recorded for APC, what ought to been recorded for APC 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 in Our Client’s favor.
“In other words, PDP ought to have been credited with additional 996 votes. The overall effect of the wrongful computation is evident in the return and declaration of Engr. Abubakar Sadiku Ohere as the winner of the election of the Kogi Central Senatorial District because the candidate that received the highest number of votes was not declared the winner
“From the foregoing, we have Our Client’s firm instructions pursuant to Section 65 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 to demand and hereby demand a review of the declaration and return of Engr. Abubakar Sadiku Ohere made by the Returning Officer for Senatorial District because if the 993 votes wrongly credited to the APC candidate are deducted from 52,132 votes wrongly credited to him, his total score would have been 51,199 votes and if the 996 votes wrongly deducted from Our Client’s votes were 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. The cumulative effect of the above analysis shows that the Declaration and Return that was made by the Returning Officer for the Kogi Central Senatorial District was made contrary to the law; particularly Sections 51(2) & (3), 66, and 70 among others of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“These violations of the law substantially affected the result of the election as declared and therefore led to the wrongful declaration and return of the APC’s candidate otherwise. Our Client who won the election ought to have been declared the winner of the election by virtue of the total lawful votes recorded at the election.
“We humbly call on you to use your good offices in reviewing the above and declare Our Client as the winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial District election conducted on 25th February 2023.”
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