The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected the Akwa Ibom rerun election held on Saturday, The Newshawk reports.
This was made known in a statement on Tuesday by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Festus Okoye.
According to the electoral body, it rejected the results of the rerun election in Essien Udim LGA because its officials were abducted and forced to compromise the processes.
He said the decision to reject the election was taken after INEC reviewed Saturday’s re-run election in 28 Constituencies, in 11 states.
The Newshawk reports that Festus Okoye said a high-powered team has been deployed to the state to coordinate the regeneration of results, conclusion of collation, declaration and announcement of final results of the rerun election in Oru East/Orsu/Orlu Federal Constituency.
INEC, however, commended voters, security agents, the media and election staff for their praiseworthy conduct.
Okoye said: “These isolated incidents minimally affected the peaceful and orderly exercise in only four of the 28 constituencies where elections were conducted.
“However, consistent with the Commission’s resolve to sanction electoral bad behavior, INEC took the following steps to protect the process:
“In Akwa-Ibom State, where the officials of INEC were abducted and diverted to an undesignated location and forced to compromise the elections in Essien Udim LGA, all the polling units involved were identified and their results discountenanced.”
