*Claims results uploaded by INEC shows that out 13 LGAs, only 8 were uploaded completely
*That in Lafia LGA, APC has 107,213 votes but on IReV portal, its 41,594
*For PDP, INEC allegedly declared 51,119 votes while on IReV portal, 48,779 was recorded
*As Governorship Election Petition Tribunal begins sitting June 24
By our special correspondent
As controversy continues to trail the conduct of the March 25 governorship election in Nasarawa state, facts emerge that the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC may have been manipulated.
It would be recalled that INEC had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Abdullahi Sule as the winner of the governorship election after he polled 347,209 votes against the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. David Emmanuel Ombugadu who was said to have polled 283,016 votes.
However, an Election Monitoring Group operating under the aegis of CivicHive in its recent report claimed that results collated and uploaded by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in it IReV platform showed that the results were grossly manipulated.
CivicHive claimed in its report that as of the time of collating this result, the total number of uploads is 3242 out of 3256 which is about 99.6% of the total results expected to be on the IReV platform.
“CivicHive collated the governorship elections in Nasarawa state from the IReV platform and these are the shocking things we noticed. As at the time of collating this result, the total number of uploads on IReV was 3242 out of 3256 which about 99.6% of the total results expected to be on the platform. Out of the 13 local; government areas, only 8 LGAs have complete results fully uploaded” the organization claimed in its report tagged “Special release of governorship election result coallation in Nasarawa state.”
It further claimed that out of the 497 PUs results scanned by its team, the following was found: That according to results declared by INEC in Lafia LGA each party after collating results from the IReV by its team, the difference in the result is different from what is declared.
According to results declared by INEC in Lafia LGA, APC got 107,213 votes but what is on IReV portal is 41,594 while for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, INEC declared 51,119 while on IRev portal what is recorded is 48,770.
“What this result shows is that there appears to be irregularities with the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and what was recorded and uploaded on the result sheet as available on IREV”, the organization added.
Though the election is being challenged at the Governorship Election Tribunal, the PDP candidate has expressed optimism that his mandate will be returned.
It would be recalled that over 500 women from across the 13 local government areas of the State had protested against the results declared by INEC claiming that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, David Emmanuel Ombugadu was already coasting to victory before what they called “INEC abracadabra.”
INEC had declared the incumbent Governor of the state and candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC, Abdullahi Sule who secured 347, 209 votes in the contest with his closest challenger, Dr. David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 283, 016 votes, as the winner of the governorship election.
