The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Kogi state, Dr Hale Longpet, has warned that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may cancel election results in areas affected by violence during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Kogi.
Longpet made this statement in response to reports of electoral violence in some Local Government Areas in Kogi state. The incidents, which occurred in Anyigba and Dekina in Kogi East, Mopa in Kogi West, and parts of Kogi Central, involved thugs interfering with polling units and carting away voting materials. According to Longpet, if the electoral process is disrupted, the law requires that the affected units’ results will be cancelled.
Longpet also expressed his dismay at the violent incidents, emphasizing that elections should be a peaceful and voluntary process. He criticized the use of thugs to disrupt the elections and questioned why anyone would engage in destructive activities when seeking to provide services for their people. Longpet noted that election is not a war and condemned the loss of lives resulting from the violence.
Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Dekina Local Government Area in Kogi state has petitioned the INEC Returning Officer, alleging that the entire electoral process was marred by insecurity, violence, and electoral malpractice, including snatching and destruction of electoral materials, maiming and killing of PDP members, and stuffing of ballot boxes in some polling units. The PDP candidate called for the cancellation of the Presidential and National Assembly election in Anyigba ward due to the activities of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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