Benue South APC Primary: Ochijele Rejects Result Showing Alapa as Winner

The Benue South APC senatorial primary election result has been disputed by Dr. Peter Sani Ochijele, the collation officer. He claims that the result presented by Hon. Nelson Godwin Onyilokwu Alapa, showing Alapa as the winner, is not authentic. Ochijele submitted a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, urging an investigation into discrepancies in the disputed result sheet and verification of a signature bearing his name.

According to Ochijele, six aspirants contested the election, and results from the nine local government areas were aggregated at the senatorial district collation centre at Lux Haven Hotel, Otukpo. The officially announced results showed Dr. Francis Ottah Agbo as the winner with 58,760 votes, followed by Hon. Joseph Ojobo with 6,782 votes, and Hon. Gabriel Oloche Agidani with 5,246 votes. Alapa scored 4,312 votes, while Hon. Patrick Idoko Ojechema came sixth with 2,732 votes.

Ochijele stated that party stakeholders, security operatives, representatives of the aspirants, and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) witnessed the announcement of the results. He signed the official result sheet and distributed copies to the aspirants' agents, INEC, and other relevant bodies. However, Ochijele later learned that Alapa had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the primary election outcome, presenting a disputed result sheet.

The disputed document presented by Alapa showed 24,788 votes attributed to him, which Ochijele insists is not accurate. Ochijele clarified that his responsibility covered the aggregation and announcement of figures submitted by the local government collation officers, while the declaration of the winner and return of the elected aspirant were handled by Alhaji Sabiu Saidu Mahuta and his team.

Ochijele's lawyers, Paul E. Ikwe and Jeremiah O. Adoga, maintained that their client did not recognize the disputed document as an authentic record of the primary election he supervised. They urged the police to establish how the disputed document was produced and introduced into the court proceedings, and to verify both result sheets to determine the source of the discrepancies.

The petition also requested that investigators compare the disputed document with the original result announced at the Otukpo collation centre to establish the facts. Ochijele's lawyers emphasized that their client wishes to state categorically that the result presented by Alapa did not originate from the election supervised by Ochijele.

Key points

• Dr. Peter Sani Ochijele, collation officer for the Benue South APC senatorial primary, disputes the result presented by Hon. Nelson Godwin Onyilokwu Alapa, showing Alapa as the winner.