How Returning Officer Disappears with Election Results in Niger LG Polls
POLITICS DIGEST – The Returning Officer for Tafa Local Government Area in Saturday’s council election in Niger State is missing, the State Independent Electoral Commission (NSIEC) has confirmed.
It was reported that the results for Mashegu and Tafa were not among the local governments announced by the commission on Sunday.
The commission’s chairman, Alhaji Aminu Bala, had told newsmen that the outcome for the two councils was being awaited.
However, the chairman said on Monday that the whereabouts of the returning officer who is supposed to be the custodian of the results has been unknown since the poll was concluded on Saturday.
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“As at today, we still don’t know the whereabouts of the Returning Officer for Tafa Local Government so the reliability of the outcome of election there is no longer tenable. We therefore have no option than to cancel the poll in that council,” he explained.
According to him, the commission has lodged a formal complaint with the police to help locate the missing officer.
The State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Tanko Beji, had written to the commission to appoint another Returning Officer to announce the results for Tafa Local Government. PDP in the letter claimed that it won the election going by the results from various polling units and wards.
Meanwhile, the commission has declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner for Mashegu Local Government Area. According to the chairman, APC’s Alhassan Maza Kuka emerged winner having polled 32,849 votes to defeat PDP’s candidate with 30,387.
