But INEC said the purported declaration remains null and void.
The election was of the supplementary polls conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
REC’s declaration
Blueprint reports that the REC, a lawyer by profession, who initially was not part of the collation process, appeared from nowhere to make the declaration without giving the number of votes scored in the election.
The media, returning officer and other national commissioners deployed to the state by INEC headquarters to conduct the exercise, were also not present.
At the end of the collection Saturday, the result of 10 local governments collated showed Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) was in a comfortable lead.
With the collation of results from 10 local government areas, the exercise was suspended till 11am Sunday morning for the collation of the remaining 10 local government areas.
But as people gathered in anticipation of the scheduled time for collation to resume, the REC breezed in and declared Binani as the winner of the election without giving figures of votes she scored in the election.
At the time of filing this report, journalists and election observers were at the collation centre waiting for the arrival of the returning officer and other INEC officials who had previously handled the exercise.
The commission, therefore, suspended forthwith the collation of the result of the supplementary election.
