Deputy Whip, House of Representatives, Pally Iriase, on Tuesday, said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should not have declared Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi inconclusive.
Iriase, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that section 181 of the 1999 Constitution should prevail.
He said that he had been unable to come to terms that the exercise was inconclusive because ‘’looking at everything considered, the election was conclusive’’.
“As far as I am concerned, it is only section 181 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that should prevail; anything other than that is not acceptable,’’ he said.
He said that irrespective of what was quoted by the returning officer of the election, it was clear that they needed to refer to the guiding laws.
“The Kogi election is conclusive because the returning officer decided to have recourse to the registered voters rather than those eligible to vote, even in the forthcoming rerun or supplementary election.
“Only 25,000 of the so-call registered 49,000 have their PVCs and you and I know that without PVC you cannot vote.
“So, the spirit is to ensure that those who have not been able to vote should be given the opportunity to vote if they are going to change the course of the results already obtained,’’ the lawmaker said.
He said: ‘’APC candidate has won by a margin of 41,000 votes and in the forthcoming supplementary election, not more than 25,000 voters can vote.
“INEC cannot issue new PVCs when the electoral process has already begun, it is not usually done.
“Even if we have recourse to the proportionate figures of those who voted during this election, you will find about 1.5 million registered voters and we barely had 500,000 accredited, which amount to one-third’’.
Iriase said that if such trend of voter turnout among those with voter card continued, there was likely not to be up to 20,000 voters turning out during the supplementary election.
“So why would INEC have recourse to a register which will not make for that decision during the supplementary election.
” I would rather that APC should go to court to claim their victory; they have won fair and square and anything to the contrary is not acceptable.
“If that position which is the most logical is accepted, then section 181 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) will apply,’’ he argued.
According to the lawmaker, anything to the contrary is calling for constitutional crisis and total dissent by the people because they have freely given their mandate to the APC.
“All these talks about inconclusiveness are not acceptable to me as a person; so, the question does not arise as to what to do; what to do next is clearly spelt out in the Constitution,’’ he said.
But in his reaction, Rep. Oghene Egoh (Lago-PDP) insisted that INEC did the right thing by declaring the election inconclusive.
He explained that the decision was in line with the electoral laws which some polling units violated.
Egoh advised APC to provide another candidate for the rerun.
“We do not know what INEC’s decision would be; they are at the moment seeking legal advice.
“We hope that the next election will produce another candidate that Kogi people will like as PDP is strongly in the race and we believe we will win,’’ he said.
(NAN)
