Drama broke out at the Imo State governorship collation centre on Saturday when Prof. Abayomi Fashina, the Returning Officer, forewarned Calistus Ihejiagwa of the Labour Party (LP) not to draw comparisons between him and Prof. Nnenna Oti.
Oti, the vice chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, was in charge of returning votes for the Abia State governorship election on March 18, whilst Fashina is the vice chancellor of the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti. Oti received praise for his daring in compiling the election results.
However, during the early hours of Sunday, Ihejiagwa urged Prof. Abayomi to examine the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) or the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) during the results collation in Owerri, the capital of Imo State.
He continued, saying, “I want to add that why won’t you call for the BVAS itself if you are not comfortable showing Nigerians the IReV’s backend server so they can verify this for both you and me.”
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“We have not requested that you alter the outcome; instead, we have asked that you take the appropriate actions in accordance with INEC procedures in order to request a seven-day break for review. In order to provide the Imo people with what they are due, INEC would review its records within that seven days.
In response, a visibly irate Fashina declared that he wouldn’t compare himself to Oti and would continue to be Professor of Pedology.
“Please don’t ever compare me with Nnenna Oti. We are not the same thing,” he warned.
“She is a vice chancellor, I am a vice-chancellor. Please don’t compare me with any other person. I remain and will continue to remain Fashina Abayomi Sunday, a well-recognised international professor of Pedology.”
