The returning officer for Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area in the gubernatorial election, Mrs Dominion Anosike, has written to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Mahmood Yakubu, requesting to appear before the committee set up to investigate the controversies over the cancellation of the results of the election in Abuja and not Bauchi, due to what she described as threat to her life.
She made the request in a letter, dated March 13, 2019, addressed to the chairman of INEC and was received in the office of the national chairman today March 14, 2019.
The letter reads in part: “I superintended over the above election in Tafawa Balewa LGA as the Returning Officer and I believe that there will be need for your committee to find out from me what transpired at the collation centre that led to the cancellation of the result by the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bauchi State.
“The purpose of this letter to your good office, is to indicate my desire to appear before the team in another location, preferably Abuja as doing that in Bauchi State would constitute a threat to my life, as I have already been threatened with instant death, should I be found anywhere in or near Bauchi State.”
Recall that the Returning Officer for Bauchi State governorship election, Prof Mohammed Kyari had cancelled the election in Tafawa Balewa LGA on Sunday evening citing failure of Mrs Anosike to use the prescribed form to enter the result of the elections collated across the local government.
This was despite the explanation given by her to the commission that the result sheets for the governorship election were carted away by thugs who invaded the collation centre in Zwall, Tafawa Balewa LGA, in the early hours of Sunday.
She also notified the commission via an explanatory memorandum signed by all stakeholders in the election at the collation centre who unanimously agreed to collate and record the result on another form, and addressed same to the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the State Returning Officer, which was submitted in Bauchi on Sunday.
However, the state Returning Officer, Prof Mohammed Kyari, rejected the explanation and unilaterally declared that there was no result for Tafawa Balewa LGA and cancelled the election of the entire local government contrary to the view held that there was no incidence of cancellation, violence or electoral malpractices at both the polling units and wards levels as reported by the returning officer.
The PDP candidate, Sen Bala Mohammed, was in the lead after results of 19 LGAs were collated, with the incumbent governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of the APC, trailing with a margin believed to be in the region of 4,000 votes.
In the contentious Tafawa Balewa LGA, the PDP was said to have scored about 40,000 votes against the APC’s 29,000.
Sources said a similar incident occurred during the presidential election on February 23 in Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State. When the collation officer discovered that the result sheet for the presidential election was missing, all party agents and electoral officers unanimously agreed to record the result on another form which was accepted by the commission and collated as part of the result from Bauchi State.