INEC chairman rules out over voting in Ekiti, as PDP, LP, PRP protest

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

There was a mild drama at the International Collation Centre situated at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, when agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), on Monday, rejected the presidential election result of Ekiti, claiming that the figures presented by the state collation officer, Prof. Akeem Lasisi, did not add up.
However, the INEC Chairman dismissed rumours of alleged over voting in Ekiti state, saying that the masterminds were purveyors of fake news.
He said the result of the Ekiti presidential election was crosschecked, authenticated and signed by all party agents at the election venue, and that there was no protest from the parties in the state on the issue of over voting.
He said rather, the number of recorded voters on Saturday from the state was indeed far below the number of registered voters for the state.
The agent of the PDP, Senator Dino Melaye had claimed that there was over voting in the Ekiti presidential 6uelection.
The State collation officer for Ekiti, Prof. Lasisi who presented the result of the election on Sunday, it will be recalled, had said that out of total number of 315, 058 accredited voters for the election, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 201, 494 while the PDP and LP candidates scored 89, 554 and 11, 397 votes respectively.
But Senator Dino Melaye said the 301, 558 accredited did not add up with the votes recorded for the parties, arguing that there was an over voting of 15, 590.
The LP and Action Alliance (AA) agents supported his submission and called for the rejection of Ekiti State result.
However, the agent of the All Progressives Congress, Barrister Babatunde Ogala, said that the best thing for the protesting agents to do was to write petition in protest against the result they are disputing and not to call for the cancelation of the result.
In his response, the INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated that the figure quoted by Dino was different from what was presented by the state collation officer on Sunday at the same venue.
Some Party agents also tackled the commission for failure to upload polling unit election results.
Their demand that the uploaded results should be displayed alongside the physical collated ones “for us to know where BVAS was bypassed,” was not granted by the INEC Chairman, who insisted that the process of the collation and announcement should take its course, and that aggrieved parties can send to INEC their grievances for review afterwards. This, he said, is aside the option of approaching the tribunal.
Dino Melaye, the agent to the of PDP Atiku had caused a stir when he insisted that the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu must not accept the results of Ekiti, alleging that there were incidents of over voting and electoral irregularities.
Initially, Yakubu entertained Melaye’s complaints but the former lawmaker sprang up to his feet and demanded that the presentation of results by state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs) did not in any way translate to the declaration of results.
Melaye also said the results presented at the national collation centre weren’t uploaded on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV). He was supported by other party agents.
The INEC chairman however made clarifications and asked the State Collation Officer for Ondo and Osun to proceed with their results.
At a point, the INEC Chairman had to caution the former Senator who represented Kogi East district in the National Assembly between 2015 and 2019, saying, “Dino, You are being disruptive”, shortly before he announced a one-hour break.