Imo, Kano governorship election results collation suspended

The collation of the results of Saturday’s governorship election was in the wee hours of this morning suspended in Imo and Kano states. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was on course to dethrone the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the two states as at the time the suspension of collation of results was announced by the Independent National Elelctoral Commission (INEC).

In Imo State, the process was aborted when agents of a political party disposed officials of the result sheets and tore them, forcing electoral officials to flee for dear life.

In Kano State, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Riskuwa Arab-Shehu, announced the suspension after the collation of results from the 43 out of the 44 Local Government Areas of the state.

The INEC Commissioner said the suspension was necessary because of reports of the security challenges from the only local government left to be announced in the governorship elections results.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the State’s Deputy Governor, Alhaji Nasir Gawuna, and the Commissioner of Local Governments, Murtala Sule-Garo were arrested for allegedly trying to disrupt the collation of the election results.

The Chairman of Nasarawa Local Government, Alhaji Lamin Sani was also arrested by the police.

According to the REC, the results were snatched away from the collation centre, and that the electoral body will refer to its primary and secondary data base to generate the result from the polling units and wards.

Arab-Shehu explained that INEC will generate the result, verify and consider those that are acceptable within the electoral law.

He added that party agents would be invited for the verification of the results to ensure transparency during the regeneration of the results.