The collation process will resume at 11pm Sunday 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 decision after conferring with the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bayelsa State, Emmanuel Alex-Hart, and other security and INEC officials overseeing the collation process.
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 11pm Sunday.
She said, “This collation (of presidential election results) is taking place simultaneously here and 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, 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 possible.”
