The collation of the results of the presidential election in Bayelsa State has been adjourned to Monday, February 27.
The collation process will resume at 10 am at the Professor Mahmood Yakubu Media Centre, the venue of the exercise at the Yenagoa INEC office on Swali Road.
The State Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof. Lilian Salami, announced the adjournment when the exercise resumed after it was earlier suspended till 11 pm Sunday.
She had after conferring with the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bayelsa State, Emmanuel Alex-Hart and other security and INEC officials overseeing the collation process, directed that the exercise be suspended until 11pm Sunday.
The results for the Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA were announced first by the Collation Officer, Prof. Francis Oluleye, followed by those of the Nembe LGA as the results for the other six local governments had yet to arrive.
But after the results for the Nembe LGA were announced by the Collation Officer for the area, Dr Comfort Mbachu of the Federal University Otuoke, Salami observed some discrepancies in the summation of the figures.
She then advised Mbachu to go and ‘clean up’ and return to announce the corrected results.
While the wait for Mbachu lasted, some state party collation officers approached Salami and others to seek postponement of the process to tomorrow, Monday.
Salami, after consulting with the state REC and other relevant officers, directed that the exercise be suspended till 11 pm Sunday.
She said, “This collation (of presidential election results) is taking place simultaneously here and in Abuja. So, I don’t think it will be fair (to stop abruptly); having discussed with members of this divide (high table) that we take a break and reconvene at 11 o’clock. Peradventure nothing happens, then we can choose to close and nobody will fault us.
“But if we do that just now it will appear as if we are not responsible and I don’t want to be part of that, and neither do you want to be part of that. So, let us go and relax and once we come in, we will be as fast as possible.”
However, when the exercise resumed at 11:15 pm, Salami apologised and announced that the collation would not go on again and that all stakeholders should reconvene at 10m on Monday.
The State Returning Officer said, “I apologise that we have to reconvene, go back and come back at about 10 o’clock tomorrow (Monday) morning. And we hope by that time it will be almost seamless; not too long we should be done, hoping that all the results would have been in by then. So I apologise and wish you all wonderful night’s rest.”
