Kogi: Audu Third Time Unlucky as Wada Wins

Former governor of Kogi State and candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in last Saturday’s governorship election in the state, Prince Abubakar Audu, has, for the third time since 2003, lost his bid to reclaim the office through electoral contest.

He was the state’s helmsman between May 1999 and May 2003, but lost his second term bid to the out-going governor of the state, Alhaji Idris Ibrahim.

With the results that were released Sunday  by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Capt. Idris Wada, emerged governor-elect having polled 300,372 votes to beat Audu, who scored 159,913 votes.

The results were declared by the former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin and serving Vice- Chancellor of the Nasarawa State University, Prof. Shamsudeen Amali, who is the Chief Returning Officer of the election.

In the result released by the election umpire, 1,325,272 voters were registered for the election, while the actual voter turnout was 518,949.

He said of the figure, 484,168 votes were valid, while 34,781 of the votes were rejected. 

According to Amali, PDP won overwhelmingly in Ajaokuta, Okehi, Idah, Mopa-Muro, Ijumu, Ogori-Magogo, Omala, Igala-Mela, Yagba-East, Yagba-West, Lokoja  Kabba -  Bunu, Bassa, Dekina, Ankpa, Ibaji, Okene and Kogi Local Government Areas, while the ACN was victorious in Adavi, Ofu (Audu’s local government) and Olamaboro Local Government Areas.

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) rated the election as peaceful and transparent, but also noted that there were still some grey areas that needed to be improved upon in future elections.

In an interim statement by its Election Working Group, which was signed by its Chairman, Dafe Akpedeye, the NBA said the presiding officer and polling clerks had difficulties conveying electoral materials from ward distribution centres to polling units due to lack of mobility.

He added that some of the party agents behaved in manners that were inconsistent with the conduct of free, fair and transparent election.
“They printed party accreditation tags of different sizes and colours and this made it difficult to distinguish the genuine and fake party agents,” Akpedeye noted.

It also noted that there were identified cases of electoral malpractices such as ballot snatching and intimidation of electoral officers.

The NBA, however, commended the people in the state for “exemplary electoral behaviour”, the security agencies for providing adequate security cover for the electorate and voters; NYSC members for their orderly conduct and INEC for the improvement it recorded in the conduct of the election.

The body also called on INEC to enforce the recommendation of the Electoral Act, 2010, which mandates political parties to submit the list of their party agents and their data to the electoral officers in the local governments at least seven days, before any election so as to pin agents to polling units and that names and pictures of agents be embossed on the accreditation tags.

The NBA also urged INEC to reduce the number of voters per polling units to not more than 500, noting that the size of some of the polling units made it impossible to carry out accreditation before voting and that proper arrangement should be put in place to facilitate the transportation of election materials.

LGA-by-LGA results

Ajaokuta
ACN, 3,129; PDP, 10,653

Adavi:
ACN, 11,557; PDP, 10,395

Okehi:
ACN, 6,606;   PDP, 18,035

Idah
ACN, 5,766; PDP 9,671

Mopamuro
ACN, 1,422; PDP, 5,933

Kogi
ACN, 6,074; PDP 9,896,

Ijumu
ACN, 5,903; PDP, 8,363

Ogori-Magongo
ACN, 1,066; PDP, 3,108

Omola
ACN, 329; PDP, 19, 357

Igalamela-Odolu
ACN, 5,886; PDP, 14,316

Yagba East
ACN, 4,160; PDP, 7,818

Yagba West
ACN, 4,342; PDP, 7,758

Lokoja
ACN, 13,194; PDP, 21,856

Dekina
ACN, 15,734; PDP, 32,102

Bassa
ACN, 7,371; PDP, 14,675

Ofu
ACN, I6,592; PDP, 11,150

Ankpa
ACN, 15, 067, PDP 18, 788

Olamaboro
ACN: 10,209; PDP, 8,401

Ibaji
ACN, 8,502; PDP, 22,408

Okene
ACN, 7,368; PDP, 35,593

Kabba-Bunu

ACN, 6,678, PDP, 10,505

Wada
300,372

PDP: “We have smoked out ACN from Kogi State. We saw the victory coming. The election was free, fair and credible and ACN is just making noise after they had lost”


Audu
159,913
ACN: "It is pathetic, painful and disheartening that the PDP has graduated from the use of thugs, police, military and other forms of intimidation to scientific rigging”