BY Samuel Akpan
Peter Mbah, governor-elect of Enugu, says “arithmetical error” by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “deprived” him of 1,072 votes during the election.
The governor in his response to the petition against his victory, said the “arithmetical error” would have given him a total of 161,029 votes.
Mbah also said the figures in the petition against him by Chijioke Edeoga, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), to justify alleged over-voting in Owo and Ugbawka in Nkanu east LGA were meant to mislead the court.
The Enugu governor-elect accused Edeoga and the LP of over-voting in several polling units, adding that the figures of accredited voters recorded were higher than what was on the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS).
Mbah, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the arithmetical error in calculating his votes would have widened his lead against his closest rival — the LP candidate.
He said by the regulations and practice of INEC, two BVAS machines were provided and used for the purposes of accreditation and uploading of results wherever a voting centre has more than 700 to 750 registered voters.
Mbah argued that the figures presented by Edeoga as supposed pieces of evidence of over-voting in some polling units in Owo and Ugbawka were actually polling units with more than 750 registered voters.
He said Edeoga failed to take into cognisance the second BVAS machine used in the polling units.
The governor-elect also told the court that votes cast exceeded accredited voters in many polling units where Edeoga won.
Mbah asked the tribunal to throw out Edeoga’s petition because it was incompetent and predicated on claims that were not backed with facts.
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