CALM IN KOGI AS SUPPLEMENTARY GUBER ELECTION HOLDS

Kogi State was calm Saturday as the Independent National Electoral Commission held supplementary elections in 91 polling units across 18 local government areas.

Residents in the state capital, Lokoja; Anyingba, Aloji, Odu, Kogi-Kotokarfe and Okene, went about their normal businesses with hardly any sign of elections, except for security officials who mounted barricades on major roads.
As at 12 noon when we visited the four polling units where supplementary election held in Anyingba, Dekina local government area, less than 300 voters had been accredited, whereas there were over 1,200 registered voters in each of the units.
Also, at Okakwu polling unit, Abocho, Dekina LGA, only 187 were accredited but 695 were actually registered for the election.
The election is expected to be an easy win for the All Progressives Congress, which won in majority of the local governments where elections held two weeks ago.
The APC candidate is Yahaya Bello who replaced late Audu Abubakar. Mr. Bello came first runner up in the APC primary election which produced Mr. Audu.
In the November 21 election, APC scored 240,867 votes, while Peoples Democratic Party polled199, 514 votes, leaving 41,353 margin between the two parties.
Although the election was declared inconclusive by the Returning Officer, Immanuel Kucha, on the ground that the margin of win was less than the number registered of registered voters, in the polling units where election was cancelled; yet only just over thousand 25,000 in the 91 polling units where election held Saturday had Permanent Voter’s Cards.
In the 2015 elections, only registered voters with PVCs can be accredited to vote.