BREAKING: Collation of Abia guber poll resumes 4pm today

The suspended collation of the Abia State governorship election will resume by 4pm today (Wednesday) at the Collation Centre located inside the premises of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, headquarters Umuahia, Vanguard  authoritatively report .

Vanguard had reported that the collation of governorship election results in Abia and Enugu were, on Monday, suspended by INEC following allegations of infractions, especially over-voting in some areas.

While results from 26 LGAs had been formally declared at the INEC Collation Centre, Obingwa result was yet to be presented when the directive from INEC headquarters in Abuja came for the exercise to the halted, and the action shifted to Abuja.

Abia had been soaked with tension since the logjam started, with protests and growing calls among residents for INEC to declare the winner of the contest and not allow the will of the people subverted.

Abia Patriots, led by former Commissioner for Youths Development, Dannie Ubani; and the immediate-past Chairman, Board of Internal Revenue, Professor Udo Ogbonnaya, had at a press conference Tuesday in Umuahia, urged INEC to stop further delays in announcing the winner of the contest, which could be “clearly seen by all according to INEC statistics”.

They warned that any error of judgment or attempt to subvert the will of the people could set the stage ablaze, and urged INEC to save Abia from avoidable political turmoil.