Benue South APC Primary: Collation officer petitions police over alleged pretend outcome

Ochijele, by his legal professionals, Paul E. Ikwe and Jeremiah O. Adoga, submitted a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, requesting an investigation into alleged alterations within the outcome sheet and the signature purportedly bearing his identify.

In the September 30, 2026 petition addressed to the police commissioner in Makurdi, the collation officer rejected the doc, insisting that its contents had been inconsistent with the outcomes of the first election he supervised.

Mahuta subsequently declared Dr Francis Ottah Agbo winner of the competition and returned him elected after he secured 58,760 votes.

The figures introduced on the collation centre confirmed that Hon. Joseph Ojobo got here second with 6,782 votes, adopted by Hon. Gabriel Oloche Agidani with 5,246 votes.

Hon. Dan Onje recorded 4,570 votes, whereas Alapa secured 4,312 votes. Hon. Patrick Idoko Ojechema completed with 2,732 votes.

According to Ochijele, the announcement was witnessed by occasion stakeholders, safety operatives, representatives of the aspirants, and officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, who monitored the method.

He additional said that the official outcome sheet was endorsed by him and distributed to the brokers of the contestants, INEC and different related our bodies. Mahuta and his secretary, Dr Bashir Garba, additionally appended their signatures earlier than the doc was forwarded to the APC.

However, Ochijele mentioned he subsequently learnt that Alapa had instituted a case on the Federal High Court in Abuja to problem the end result of the first election.

He alleged that the outcome sheet submitted in reference to the courtroom case contained figures completely different from these formally introduced on the collation centre and introduced Alapa because the winner of the train.

Rejecting the doc, the collation officer clarified that his mandate was to combination and announce the outcomes acquired from the native authorities collation officers, whereas the accountability for declaring the winner and returning him elected belonged to Mahuta and his crew.

He notably expressed concern over the 24,788 votes allegedly attributed to Alapa within the disputed doc, sustaining that the aspirant scored solely 4,312 votes within the outcomes formally introduced.

Ochijele additionally denied appending his signature to the controversial outcome sheet, urging the police to authenticate the signature and examine it together with his endorsement on the unique election paperwork.

His legal professionals insisted that their consumer didn’t recognise the disputed doc as an genuine report of the election he supervised.

“Our client wishes to state categorically that the result which Hon. Nelson Godwin Onyilokwu Alapa has paraded in the processes filed in the court purporting to be the winner of the Benue South APC Senatorial Primary election did not originate or emanate from the election which our client was the Collation Agent,” the legal professionals said.

The solicitors additional emphasised that Ochijele had disowned the signature on the doc, calling for a radical probe into the way it was produced and subsequently introduced within the courtroom proceedings.

The petition urged the police to confirm the authenticity of each outcome sheets, set up the supply of the alleged discrepancies, and examine whether or not any type of manipulation or different irregularity was concerned.

It additionally requested a comparability of the disputed doc with the unique outcome introduced on the Otukpo collation centre to find out the info surrounding the controversy.