In what may seem like a desperate move, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has gone ahead to announce the results of Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State.
Edo residents went to the poll on Saturday, September 21, 2024, to elect a would-be successor to incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki of the PDP whose two-term tenure will elapse on November 12, 2024.
However, over 24 hours after the voting exercise got underway, the people of the state are still holding their breath as they await official announcement of results from across the 18 local government areas of Edo.
The election has been very contentious with the PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) being the major contenders. The former had accused the latter of colluding with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the process.
The PDP candidate in the election, Asue Ighodalo, raised the alarm on Saturday night when he alleged that results from over 20 polling units had been tampered with.
There were also reports of incidences at some collation centres in the state where the PDP claimed its agents were denied access to witness the process.
Consequently, Obaseki stormed the INEC office in Benin in the early hours of Sunday to register the party’s displeasure over how the collation was playing out.
The Governor was later walked out of the premises by security agents following a protest by APC officials and supporters.
Addressing the press on Sunday morning, the party accused INEC of violating the Electoral Act by truncating the collation process to compromise the election.
This is according to Adamawa State Governor and Chairman of the Edo PDP National Campaign Council, Ahmadu Fintiri, who spoke on behalf of the PDP at the party’s situation room in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Fintiri claimed that the party agents collated results from 12 out of the 18 local government areas before the process was marred by irregularities.
He said, “At the point of the truncation of the collation exercise, these are the results that have been collected:
1 Esan Central LG – APC-8,618, PDP-10,990
2 Esan North-East LG – APC 10,648, PDP-12,522
3 Esan South-East LG – APC-8,398, PDP-14,199
4 Esan West LG – APC-12,952, PDP-11,004
5 Igueben LG – APC-5,407, PDP-8,470
6 Etsako Central LG – APC-10,990, PDP-8,618
7 Orhionmwon LG – APC-16,059, PDP-16,614
8 Ovia North-East LG – APC-13,225, PDP-15,311
9 Ovia South-West LG – APC-10,150, PDP-10,260
10 Owan West LG – APC-12,277, PDP-11,284
11 Owan East LG – APC-19,380, PDP-14,189
12 Uhunmwonde LG – APC-8,673, PDP-9,639
From the the figures he reeled out, Ighodalo polled 143,100 votes while the APC candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo recorded 136,777 votes.
Finitiri denies announcing results
Fintiri however denies announcing results, saying figures he reeled out were of some polling units and local governments, received from party agents, insisting he was not usurping the powers of INEC by his action.
“I did not announce results, I only informed the public on the exact figure from our collation agents that was ongoing before INEC disrupted the process… INEC should be accused of violating the Electoral Act, not me,” Fintiri said.
Obaseki defends Presence at INEC office
Governor Obaseki was spotted at the INEC office at about 2am and report claimed he was there for almost three hours until some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) protested his presence at the facility, which eventually let to the DIG in charge of Edo state election, Mr Frank Mbah to intervene and walk the governor out of the INEC premises.
but in the briefing, Obaseki said claimed his visit enabled INEC release information regarding the results, which the commission refused to as reported by some PDP agents.
“At about 1am, I got a report that collation was supposed to have been moved to the INEC head office. I also got reports from our agents that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation centre,” he said.
“At that point in time, I called the REC to find explanation as to what was going on. There was no response. I went to INEC to meet with the REC to try and understand what steps the INEC was taking to continue the process of collation.
