I have not conceded defeat -Gov Abubakar

Olalekan Adetayo, Ade Adesomoju and Armstrong Bakam

 The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday resumed the collation of the governorship election results of the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State following an order of a Federal High Court, Abuja.

The court had last week ordered INEC to stop the collation of the results in the local government, but on Monday, it gave the commission the go-ahead to collate and announce the results.

In an interview with journalists on Monday, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Bauchi State, Ibrahim Abdullahi, confirmed that the commission had resumed collation of the results.

He said, “Right now in that room, they (INEC officers) are submitting the regenerated or reconstructed results to the local government collation officer.

Court gives INEC leeway

The Federal High Court in Abuja had earlier on Monday give INEC the leeway to continue and conclude the collation of the results of March 9, 2019 governorship election in Bauchi State.

The court had on March 19, 2019 made an order stopping INEC from going ahead with the collation of the results of the governorship election held in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state.

This had prevented INEC from concluding the collation of the results of the governorship election in the state despite that the supplementary election which held in some other parts of the state on March 23, 2019 was concluded and the results already announced.

But in his judgment on Monday, Justice Inyang Ekwo set aside his earlier order of March 19, 2019.

After declining jurisdiction to hear the substantive case, the judge ruled on Monday that “the defendant (INEC) ought to be allowed to perform its statutory function.”

He ruled that it was better for the plaintiffs in the case to ventilate their grievances at the election petition tribunal.

He said, “It is my opinion that if the defendant (INEC) is allowed to conclude the process, any party desirous of ventilating his grievance can then approach the election tribunal.

“The tribunal can then determine all the issues of concern to the parties.

“It is on this score that I will decline jurisdiction and allow the preliminary objection of the defendant to succeed.

“I will therefore not go into the substantive matter so that I will not create issues estopel in the proceedings anywhere outside this court.”

Giving INEC the authorisation to conclude the collation and announce the winner of the election, the judge said, “Finally, having declined jurisdiction, the order of  status quo  made by this court on March 19, 2019 is hereby vacated.

“Consequently, I hold that there is no legal impediment preventing the defendant from proceeding with their decision in their press release of March 15, 2019 forthwith.

“Accordingly, I make an order dismissing this case.”

The suit was  filed by the All Progressives Congress and its candidate in the governorship election in the state, Governor Mohammed Abubakar.

The defendant had sued INEC to challenge the commission’s decision to resume and conclude  collation and announce the final results of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state, after the March 9, 2019 election in the state had been earlier declared inconclusive.

The APC and Abubakar, who is aiming to be elected for second term as governor, had contended that INEC, having announced that there would be a supplementary election, could not reverse the decision without a backing of an order of court.

But INEC had insisted that only the Election Petition Tribunal had the jurisdiction to hear the matter since the election had already held in part.

As of the time of filing in this report (8pm), the collation of seven out of the 11 Wards in the Tafawa Balewa Local Governmenr had been done and the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Senator Bala Mohammed was still leading.

A supplementary election was then held on Saturday, March 23, in 36 Polling Units in 29 Wards across 15 Local Government Areas of Bauchi State.

The results from the 15 LGAs as declared by the returning officer Prof. Kyari Mohammed, showed that Mohammed got 6, 376 votes.

His closest rival, the candidate of the APC and incumbent Governor, Mohammed Abubabakar got 5, 117.

According to the results, Mohammed led Abubabakar with 1, 259 votes to emerge the winner of the supplementary elections.

Before the declaration of the governorship election as inconclusive by Prof. Mohammed, early hours of Monday 11th March, 2019, the PDP candidate led the incumbent Governor with 4, 059 votes.

According to the Returning Officer, Sen. Bala Mohammed got 469, 512 votes to lead the Governor, Mohammed Abubabakar of the All progressives Congress, who got 465, 453 votes.

I have not conceded defeat -Gov Abubakar

The state Governor,  Abubakar,  in a terse statement  by  his Press Secretary, Abubabakar Al-Sadique, said he had not congratulated the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator  Bala Mohammed.

Abubabakar, who was reacting to a statement being circulated on the Internet, which indicated that he had conceded defeat and congratulated his opponent, described the statement as “fake news.”

He said: “Our attention has been drawn to  trending fake news, said to have been issued by me (the press officer) on behalf of his excellency .

“The said news is  fake news. We have genuine channels of disseminating all our press statements to media organisations, which we have not done.” He urged the general public to disregard it

CUPP hails court ruling

But the Coalition of United Political Parties hailed the decision of the court to vacate the order restricting INEC from continuing the collation of governorship election result in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

In a statement by its spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere, the coalition described the ruling as victory for the nation’s democracy.

It also said the development signalled an end to the  attempts by those he described as enemies of constitutional governance to deny the people of the state of heir constitutional right to see the man they elected inaugurated as their governor.

The statement read, “CUPP hails Federal High Court’s ruling delivered a few minutes ago in Abuja vacating the  order restricting INEC from continuing the collation of governorship election result from Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area and declaring the winner of Bauchi State governorship election.

“The road is now clear for the official declaration of Senator Bala Mohammed as the people’s governor-elect for Bauchi State.

“This ruling is a huge victory for our constitutional democracy and an end to the shameful attempts by enemies of our constitutional governance  to use the court to ambush  and deny the Bauchi people their constitutional right to see the man they elected inaugurated as their governor.

“The Buhari APC’s  shameful legacy of attempting to use the court to halt constitutional electoral process must be condemned by all Nigerians.”

source:  https://punchng.com/inec-complies-with-court-order-resumes-collation-of-bauchi-results/