The Independent National Electoral Commission has suspended the further collation of Governorship election results in Obingwa LGA of Abia state which are yet to be collated after the collation of the other 16 LGAs of the State, said a review will be undertaken before the process is concluded.
The INEC Returning Officer for Abia Governorship election and Vice Chancellor Federal University of Technology Owerri in Imo state, Professor Nnenna Oti who made this known to journalists shortly after the collation of the results from the other 16 LGAs of the State in INEC office Umuahia said,” Late yesterday afternoon INEC from Abuja through Barrister Festus Okoye made a press conference and reiterated INEC position in Obingwa LGA election .The INEC chairman Prof Yakubu Mamood called and directed me to suspend the Obingwa LGA Collation and INEC Headquarters Abuja has made a press release in respect to that .
She further said a team led by the National INEC office Abuja will be in Abia State to conduct a review and therefore adjourned the collation of the results as instructed.
In a release signed by the National Commissioner and chairman information and Voters Education committee, Barrister Festus Okoye and made available to the general public,” The Commission met today Monday 20th March 2023 and reviewed the conduct of the Governorship and State Assembly elections held nationwide on Saturday 18th March ,2023 .
“Arising from the meeting ,the Commission took the decision to suspend forthwith further collation of the Governorship election results in some parts of Abia and Enugu states.
” It will be recalled that our office in Obingwa LGA was invaded by thugs yesterday Sunday 19th March ,2023 and our officials held hostage in relation to the collation of results from the Local Government Area” the release reads
Meanwhile, out of the 16 LGAs of the State collated so far the Labour party Governorship candidate Dr Alex Oti is leading with a very wide margin.
