The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said it stands by the results obtained by its polling agents across the state and confirmed by the chairman of the Edo PDP National Campaign Council, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State. The results alleged that Ighodalo won the election.
Also, the Edo State chapter of PDP protested the collation of results in the governorship election by INEC. It alleged that the commission was manufacturing votes, entering an unjust inflation of APC votes, and deducting PDP votes.
In a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP said, “As Governor Fintiri presented, the results collated from the polling units have Asue Ighodalo in clear lead before the state collation exercise was hijacked by the APC, which in connivance with some unscrupulous INEC and security officials, engaged in blatant alteration and substitution of the genuine results with fabricated figures in favour of the defeated APC candidate.”
The statement released before the final declaration of the results by INEC said PDP had on several occasions alerted Nigerians to the sinister plot by APC and its candidate, Okpebholo.
According to Ologunagba, “The PDP in the strongest terms, cautions the APC and INEC not to announce or declare any result that does not reflect the will of the people as expressed at the polling units. Such will be a recipe for a huge crisis in the state, as the people of Edo State will never allow their mandate in illegitimate hands.
“Our party again cautions INEC not to lose sight of the violent protest that trailed the criminal attempt by the former Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mallam Hudu Ari, to alter the outcome of the 2023 governorship election in that state, which nearly led to the death of some INEC officials.
“Any attempt to change the results of the Edo State governorship election and allocate victory to a defeated candidate will provoke worse consequences. INEC must, therefore, do that which is right in the interest of peace, stability and sustenance of Democracy in Nigeria.”
The state chairman of PDP, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, who made the allegation of vote manufacturing at a press conference, said he called the conference because of what the party saw on the conduct of the election. Aziegbemi alleged that the process was characterised by massive irregularities.
Requesting that INEC should look into the party’s observations, Aziegbemi said preliminary reports from the electoral umpire in three local government areas showed massive discrepancies.
For example, he said Egor collation did not take place in the local government area, contrary to the electoral law, which required that all collations must be at the local government.
Aziegbemi told INEC that entries made were totally different from the actual results as uploaded on the INEC IREV, thereby unjustly inflating votes in favour of APC and deducting the votes of PDP.
Specifically, Aziegbemi said in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area, a simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV showed that APC obtained 25,010 votes while PDP got 34,847 votes.
He stated, “It would interest you that in Ward 9 Akoko Edo LGA, from the 36 polling unit results uploaded on the IREV, the total votes obtained by APC is 2,350 while 9,104 was entered into the EC8B result for APC. The total votes for PDP is 1,359 while 633 was entered in the EC8B.
“Also, in Ward 6 Akoko Edo LGA, where elections did not hold in Ward 6 Units 12, 17, 15, 18, 14 and 16, results were returned for the said polling units in the Ward Result sheet (EC8B).”
The Edo PDP chairman requested INEC not to announce the final results until all the observations were corrected. He added that if the right thing was done, Ighodalo of PDP would win the election.
Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha, Sunday Aborisade, Linus Aleke, Adibe Emenyonu and Hammed Shittu
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