Benue Rerun: INEC to conduct supplementary election in 204 polling units

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, said that the Saturday, March 23 supplementary governorship election in Benue State would be conducted in 204 polling units across the State.

The Head of Voters Education, Publicity, Gender and Civil Society, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benue State, Mr Emmanuel Okpe, disclosed this during an interview with our correspondent in Makurdi.

Mr Okpe also said that the supplementary elections would hold in 22 out of the 23 LGAs where votes for the governorship and State Assembly elections were cancelled and winners could not be declared.

He further disclosed that 109,299 registered voters in the 22 affected LGAs would be participating in the March 23, 2019, supplementary election in the state.

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It would be recalled that the Benue State governorship election was declared inconclusive due to electoral malpractices recorded in some parts of the during the March 9 governorship and State Assembly elections in the state.

Before the election was declared as inconclusive, INEC had announced that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, scored the highest valid votes of 410,576 in 12 Local government areas, while his closest rival and All Progressives Congress APC candidate, Barrister Emmanuel Jime pulled 329,022 to came second.

State Returning Officer for the Benue State governorship election, Prof Sebastien Maimako who announced the result, at the INEC headquarters in Makurdi.

Professor Maimako while declaring the governorship noted that the election became inconclusive due to the fact that the total number of accredited voters in areas where the election was not held, was more than the margin of lead.

Consequently, the margin of lead was put at 81,554 while the total number of cancelled votes stood at 121,019.