As contained in a statement issued by the Secretary on behalf of The Probity and Accountability Watch Initiative, PAWI, Comrade Anthony Ekene, while expressing the group's disappointment over the tactical delay of INEC in announcing the winner of Enugu State gubernatorial election, Dr. Peter Mbah of PDP.
“INEC is under constitutional obligation to declare Peter Mbah as the winner, having met the requirements of the law" According to Anthony Ekene, how can INEC justify that election in Enugu have been concluded and citizens waiting for declaration only for them to suspend the said declaration on the basis of irregularities of result after the returning officers have submitted and INEC collated the results. "We are in an era where people's opinions and choices must matter, the people of Enugu have cast their votes and it must count, whatever be the issues could be resolved through the appropriate channels which is the court of law, sentiments and emotion should not cover our sense of reasoning" he said.
Citing section 64 (8) of the Electoral Act 2022 which provides that where collation has been completed as in the present case of Enugu State, the duty of the collation officer, who collated the result is to announce the result and make a declaration, having collated the results from Nsukka LGA and Nkanu East LGA, the statutory duty and legal responsibility of the State Returning Officer is simply to announce and declare the results, as INEC cannot, by law, suspend the declaration of result already collated. Similarly, INEC cannot choose the ones you will collate to release the result and the ones you will collate and withhold the result since position of the law is that a Returning Officer has no power to cancel any results at the stage of collation. The only option open to any person dissatisfied with the process is to resort to Section 130 (1) of the Electoral Act, which vests the power to receive and adjudicate petitions complaining of an undue election or undue return in an election in the tribunal or court.
“Enugu election is not the same case with Abia State, the results of the entire 17 LGAs of Enugu State, including those of Nkanu East and Nsukka LGAs, have been fully collated by the Returning Officer, Prof Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe, on Sunday the 19th of March. What remains for the INEC is to sum up the returns by the Local Government Returning Officers and declare the candidate, Dr. Mbah the governor-elect"
