The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded senatorial election in Kogi Central, Mrs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has written the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Mahmoud Yakubu on the outcome of the election.
Akpoti-Uduaghan in the letter dated March 1, 2023 is specifically demanding for a review of the declaration and return of candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Ohore as winner of the February 25 senatorial election in Kogi Central senatorial district.
The request, which is brought pursuant to Section 65 of the Electoral Act, 2022, is amongst others claiming that the Returning Officer for the Senatorial District “wrongly” declare and return the APC as winner of the said election.
Akpoti-Uduaghan in the letter written by his lawyer, Mr Johnson Usman, claimed that, “the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) was wrongly returned with 52,132 votes and declared the winner of the election in the Senatorial District while our client was wrongly credited with 51,763 votes.”
She claimed that the alleged manipulation of results occurred in three polling units in Ganaja Township Ward in Ajaokuta local governement area of Kogi state.
The PDP candidate argued that if the recordings were properly done and correctly imputed, Akpoti-Uduaghan would have won the election in the senatorial district because as against 1,135 votes wrongly recorded for APC, what ought to have been recorded for APC is only 202 votes, and the excess manipulative and fictitious 933 votes would not have formed part of the election result in the polling units while PDP would have earned 1,073 as against the 77 votes recorded in PDP’s favor.
“In other words, PDP ought to have been credited with additional 996 votes.
The overall effect of the wrongful computation is evident in the return and declaration of Engr. Abubakar Ohere as the winner of the election of the Kogi Central senatorial district because the candidate that received the highest number of votes was not declared the winner.”
