The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has challenged the order of a Federal High Court in Abuja, ordering it to stop the collation of the governorship election results in Bauchi State.
INEC’s National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, said the commission has filed a ‘motion on notice` challenging the jurisdiction of the court in granting the order.
He however noted that until their motion is decided, the court order barring the commission from collating the result of Tafawa Balewa area will subsist.
Recall that a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday ordered INEC not to resume the collation and announcement of governorship election result in Bauchi.
Justice Inyang Ekwo made the order following an ex parte application filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Bauchi state Governor, Mohammed Abubakar.
The order did not however affect the collation of state assembly results in the state.
Okoye said: “The commission has already taken a decision. The order is from a properly constituted court of law, so we complied.”
He said the commission would conduct supplementary elections in areas not affected by the order of the Federal High Court.
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Recall also that INEC had declared the governorship election in Bauchi and four other states inconclusive. The other states are Benue, Plateau, Sokoto and Kano.
It had also scheduled supplementary elections to hold in those states on March 23. However, the electoral body at the weekend reversed its decision on Bauchi saying that it had found out that the results of the Tafawa Balewa Local Government, where it said the result of the March 9 poll was torn by an armed gang, were intact.
INEC said a fact-finding committee headed by Okoye recommended that the results of polling units in the council should be upheld and then cancelled the planned supplementary election in the council.
The APC, and its guber candidate, the incumbent governor, Abubakar headed to court to stop the planned resumption of collation.
They accused Okoye’s committee of bias against them alleging that Okoye and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara were close friends, a claim which Okoye has denied.
