Governor Samuel Ortom in company of Senators David Mark and Iyorcha Ayu on Sunday evening stormed the premises of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to lodge a formal complaint about the movement of results from Gboko Local Government area of the state.
Ortom who spoke with newsmen after meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Nentawe Yilwatda said he got a complaint that some soldiers went to Gboko and highjacked the result of the entire Gboko local government of Makurdi without taking the PDP agents along.
He said they became apprehensive especially as the Senator representing Benue North East, George Akume had vowed to upturn the results coming from the area against the PDP.
“We are apprehensive because just some few minutes ago, I learnt that some soldiers went to the Gboko collation centre and parked all the materials, the returning officer and electoral materials and came to Makurdi without our agents.
“We became confused and said we cannot just allow it. We will come and talk to the REC to find out why it is so. But on getting here now, the REC he assured us that all is well and they (INEC) was just concerned about the safety of the materials.”
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The governor who was also accompanied by the PDP senatorial candidate for the district, Oker Jev said the REC had however assured them that there wasn’t going to be any problem as the PDP agents would be allowed to participate in the collation of the results.
He noted that it was on record from results collated so far that PDP had so far won six out of the seven local government areas of the zone adding that the PDP had already petitioned relevant authorities on the result coming from Tarka where its party agents were chased away.
Ortom also lamented that up till the time of this report, the PDP was not aware of the whereabouts of its Central Agent, Dr. Cletus Tokyaa who was picked up and detained at the state CID.
