By Amos Aar
APC’s Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia has extended his lead to 450,610 over PDP’s Titus Uba who now has 209,374 in twenty LGAs out of 23 in Benue State.
The margin of lead by the Catholic priest over his closest rival, Uba, has been extended to 241,236, as INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Sam Egwu, announced a break, and adjourned collation till 3pm, Monday.
Prof Egwu said results from the two outstanding local government areas will be collated and announced after the break.
Egwu also announced that tomorrow, Tuesday, March 21, 2023 has been fixed for the conduct of both the governorship and state legislative elections in Kwande LGA which did not hold on Saturday, March 18, 2023 due to an error in the printing of ballot papers for Kwande-West and Kwande-East state constituencies.
Prof. Egwu, who briefed Journalists Monday on the schedule of the elections in Kwande said he was however not certain whether the winner of the governorship election will be announced today at the end of the collation even if the margin between the leading candidate and the runner up is higher than the number of registered voters who have collected PVCs in Kwande.
Egwu’s position is contrary to his earlier assertion where he had assured that if at end of the day, the margin between the leading candidate and the runner-up and the number of those who collected PVCs in Kwande local government could not make a difference even if INEC conducts the election, a winner will be announced.
“The law empowers us to announce,” had Egwu asserted.
Contrary to this, Egwu is now stating that he lacks the powers to declare the governorship election inconclusive or to announce the winner considering the situation in Kwande until the decision is taken from INEC headquarters, Abuja.
