Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the cancellation of some polling units in the rerun conducted in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states over what it described as electoral infractions.

The commission, in a statement by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Festus Okoye, said: “INEC met on Monday and reviewed the conduct of January 25, 2020, court-ordered a rerun in 28 constituencies in 11 states of the federation.

“It noted a marked improvement in compliance with its processes and procedures during the elections. The Commission commends the voters, security agents, the media and election staff for their praiseworthy conduct.

“Regrettably, deviant behaviour by a few persons determined to subvert the people’s will was noticed in a few areas in the course of the elections. These isolated incidents minimally affected the peaceful and orderly exercise in only four of the 28 constituencies where elections were conducted.

“However, consistent with the commission’s resolve to sanction electoral bad behaviour, the commission took the following steps to protect the process:

“In Akwa Ibom State, where the officials of the commission were abducted and diverted to an undesignated location and forced to compromise the elections in Essien Udim Local Government Area, all the polling units involved were identified and their results discountenanced.

“In Abi State Constituency of Cross River State, officials of the commission were abducted and thus prevented from deploying in eight polling units. All officials of the commission that were abducted have been rescued and accounted for.

“In furtherance of its resolve not to accept results from areas where the processes were disrupted and its officials attacked, the commission took a firm action by not accepting results from such areas as it could not vouch for their integrity.

“But the Commission notes that in most cases, these incidents were not widespread and did not significantly affect the overall results. As such, declarations and returns were made,” INEC said in the statement.

Meanwhile, a House of Representatives member, Nsikak Ekong, has thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for not interfering in the rerun in Akwa Ibom State.

Ekong, who was the People’s Democratic Party candidate in the election, commended the president for keeping to his words of not influencing or interfering in the rerun in the state.

“I thank you our dear president for proving that you are indeed a democrat,” Ekong said.

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh elections in those constituencies in Imo State where PDP state lawmakers defected to the All Possible Congress.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, during a media briefing in Abuja, also said the defected lawmakers had lost their seats according to Nigeria’s constitution.

He said, “It is settled under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), that a legislator who decamps from a party upon which he was elected a member of a legislative house automatically loses his or her membership of that house as the seat belongs to the political party upon which platform the election was won and not the individual.

“The vacation of the seat, as a direct consequence of decamping to another political party other than the party upon which one was elected to occupy a seat in the legislature, is clear and unambiguous under section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“For the avoidance of doubt, section 109 (1)(g) provides that “a member of the House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if …(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:

“The Constitution went further to state “provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

“Consequent upon the above constitutional provisions, these defectors have vacated their seats, they no longer have a place in the state assembly, as there is no division or merger of any kind in the PDP at any level whatsoever.

“The PDP is therefore left with no other option than to request the INEC to immediately commence the processes for the conduct of fresh elections into the respective state constituencies where the legislators have vacated their seats, in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.”

The call by the Minority Leader of the Senate,  Enyinnaya Abaribe,  on the  President,  Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to resign immediately based on Buhari’s inability to curtail the alarming security challenges in the country caused a stir on the floor of the red chamber on Wednesday.

Abaribe spoke after the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi,  presented his motion on rising security challenges in the country.

Abaribe said the attitude of the president to insecurity in the country,  surprised him.

He said those who live by propaganda will die by propaganda.

Abaribe said he was building up to the fact that they said Boko Haram has been defeated.

He said the hard work that was supposed to be done to secure the country was not done because of the propaganda.

He said excuses for non-performance is now staring them in the face.

He said Niger and Jos killings by  Boko Haram terrorists indicated that the insurgency war was far from over.

He said the opposition members in the National Assembly are of the opinion that Buhari should resign from office.

He said,  “Nigerians will go to the government and ask the government to resign because they did not elect the chief of staff, the police IG, service chiefs and others.

“Nigerians voted a government into power. We are going with  stones to stone them now because they have failed.”

When the uproar generated by Abaribe subsided,  Senator Abdullahi Adamu said Abaribe’s submissions were unnecessary.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan,  also appealed to his colleagues to approach the issue with caution.

Meanwhile,  the senators also protested when the Deputy President of the Senate,  Ovie Omo-Agege, in his contribution vehemently opposed the creation of state police on account of paucity of funds crippling the states and possible abuse by the state governors.

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