Delta State Election: INEC Yet To Issue Certificate Of Return To Okowa #NigeriaDecides: INEC Yet To Issue Certificate Of Return To Okowa

 INEC Yet To Issue Certificate Of Return To Okowa

 April 15, 2015

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has failed to issue a Certificate of Return to the governor-elect of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
The State Returning Officer, Professor Bio
Nyanayo, in the early hours of Monday, declared Senator Okowa the winner of the governorship poll having won in twenty-one local governments out of twenty-five.
According to Nyanayo, Okowa polled a total of 724,680 votes to defeat his Labour Party Peoples (LP) counterpart, Chief Great Ogboru who scored 130,028 votes, with the All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor scoring 67,825 votes.
It was expected INEC would issue the Certificate of Return to Okowa, but such brief though significant event had not occurred.
No reason has been given so far that may be responsible for the delay in INEC issuing the Certificate to him, but there are speculations that the decision not to award the certificate may be connected with the circumstances surrounding the emergence of Okowa as governor-elect.
Few hours after declaring Okowa as governor-elect, a video emerged online was filmed massively thumbprinting ballot papers in Delta North.
It has also been reported that several petitions have been sent to INEC’s office in Abuja alleging irregularities during the elections.
In all of these, one thing can be certain: INEC I becoming increasingly under pressure to rectify these petitions. With Buhari set to become the number one citizen of Nigeria as from May 29, the interests of several bigwigs must surely be sacrificed for the common good.