The homes of the Secretary to the Taraba State Government, Gebon Timothy Kataps and that of former Deputy Speaker of Taraba state assembly, Abel Peter Diah in Gembu have been burnt down by suspected thugs.

Gembu is the headquarters of Sardauna local government area of the state,where the last result in the governorship election in the state was being awaited.

According to a Daily Trust report, the riotous youths had tried to block results from Mbamgar Constituency from being taken to collation centre, a situation which later snowballed into crisis in the area.

It was further learnt that the situation in the area has also made it difficult for INEC electoral officers to convey results of Sardauna local government area to the INEC headquarters in Jalingo for final declaration of the guber result.

When contacted, Taraba Police Spokesman, ASP Joseph Kwaji confirmed there was report of such incident in the area on Monday but added that he was yet to be furnished with details.

According to Kwaji, “Some youths from a political party decided to gang up and invaded some houses. Our men have moved there to calm the situation. I am yet to ascertain the level of casualties in the area.”

Meanwhile, INEC has declared as “inconclusive” the governorship election. 

The commission ordered a rerun in some polling units in 30 days.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Darius Dickson Ishaku won the poll in nine local governments areas with 317,198 votes, while Aisha Alhassan of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won six local government areas 262,386 votes to come second .

But the Returning Officer for Taraba Prof. Mohammed Kyari said since the number of cancelled votes was more than the number of the difference in votes (margin) between PDP and the APC, there was need to re-conduct the election in the affected areas.

Kyari said: “Since the number of the cancelled votes is more than the difference between the two leading parties, the election in Taraba state is therefore inconclusive.”

INEC said it cancelled the polls in those areas because of irregularities and pockets of violence.

PDP won with a difference of 54,812 votes, while the number of the cancelled votes in all the affected polling units amounted to 127,125 votes.

INEC said there would be rerun in Donga local government area and some polling units in Chanchanji Ward in Takum “where votes were rejected.”

The rerun in Donga would be across its entire 165 polling units which the PDP earlier claimed to have won.

*Originally reported by Daily Trust