Benue State: INEC commences collation Of Presidential election results

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has commenced the collation of presidential election results in Benue State, North Central Nigeria.

Results have been collated from two Local Governments in the state so far, with four major contending political parties leading in the presidential race which has 18 candidates.

In Tarka Local Government, the country home of Minister of Special Duties, George Akume, the Collation Officer, Professor David Gungur indicated that the All Progressives Congress, APC scored a total of 13, 240 votes while Labour Party polled 2,038 votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP scored 2,642 votes in Tarka Local Government while the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP got 37 votes.

Elsewhere in Buruku Local Government, the Collation Officer, Professor Grace Gberikyon announced that the All Progressives Congress, APC Presidential Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, scored 20,248 votes while the Labour Party got 13,466 votes.

According to the result, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP got 6,909 votes in Buruku Local Government while New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP scored 240 votes.

Before the commencement of the collation of results, the Benue State Collation Officer, Professor Faruk Adamu Kuta, commended security operatives, the media and political parties for educating the electorates to be peaceful before, during and after the voting exercise.

Professor Kuta observed that if the nation’s electoral process can be sustained in a peaceful atmosphere, Nigeria will soon catch up with advanced democracies like the United States.

Earlier, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Benue State, Professor Sam Egwu acknowledged challenges during the presidential polls in about 72 Polling Units in some locations across the state.

He announced that the Presidential and National Assembly elections were still being held in several Polling Units in the state following technical and logistic problems encountered on February 25.

Professor Egwu said the state office of the Commission was only being used as a Collation Center as the final declaration of the Presidential results would be done in Abuja by the National Chairman of the Commission.

He explained that the State Collaboration Officer was not in the state to serve as adjudication Officer and urged those with grudges to wait until the constitution of an Electoral Petitions Tribunal to ventilate their cases.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner particularly commended security operatives in the state for their commitment to a peaceful democratic process.

Voice of Nigeria reports that at the time of filing this report, the Commission had proceeded on a three hour break to reconvene at 9 pm after collating results from 2 Local Governments as results from the remaining 21 local governments were still being expected.

PIAK