@eDODECIDEs: Cross claims of win as PDP says its candidate, Ighodalo, in clear lead with Obaseki, others doing Kano at INEC headquarters Benin

By OUR REPORTERS

Following Saturday September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State where 2.2 million voters were anticipated to decide their next governor who will succeed the current leader, Governor Godwin Obaseki, there were in the early evening of the day jubilation at several platforms dominated by All Progressives Congress (APC) members with claims that their governorship candidate, Monday Okpepbhole, was in early lead.

The jubilation, however, subsided as the night went further deep and results at various local government areas’ collation centres began to show the otherwise. Opposition, particularly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), essentially alleged that suddenly their agents were calling to tell how they were being teargased by security agents in attempt to block them from witnessing the collations as they were ongoing at certain council areas.

From the situation room of PDP, the results declared so far were summarized in a graphic that showed the party’s Asue Ighodalo scoring 253,180 votes, APC’s Okpebholo. scoring 220,925 votes and Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata scoring 13,289 votes. They are the three major contenders in the election.

In the meantime, because of crisis created by political actors, who insisted that the collations must cease at the local government collation centres and all results taken to the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there were complaints of how agents of PDP and other opposition parties were being blocked from entering the INEC headquarters in Benin City.

This led to PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, and his running mate, to racing to the INEC headquarters to see what is happening.  Governor Godwin Obaseki, too, appeared to do what Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso when he led his New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) governorship candidate, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, and several numbers of party faithful to the INEC headquarters to ensure that all collations would be to their face.

Governor Obaseki and his party’s candidates and supporters replicated that in Benin City, Edo State capital Saturday night upon hearing what was being perpetrated in attempt to compromise officials of the electoral umpire to change the results that they (including APC) all had from the Local Government collation centres.

However, a voice was heard loud in a video watched by The DEFENDER as posted on a platform dominated by APC members, called EDO AGENDA, and used as their situation room, screaming to the police officers manning the gate that, “Obaseki is nobody! He must come out. I am a lawmaker of the Federal Republic.”

The lawmaker was later identified in another post on the same situation monitoring platform as “Rt. Hon. Dennis Idahosa the fearless incoming deputy governor of edo state”, said to have also alleged that, “There are allegations that Governor Godwin Obaseki trying to bride the INEC with $5m but rejected by INEC boss.”

However, the PDP candidate and his deputy, who also spoke to a television crew at the INEC headquarters, told Nigerians why they were there.

According to Asue Ighodalo, “We are actually not sure what is happening. They  are supposed to have been some collations in Local Governments in Oredo and Ikpoba Oha,  all of a sudden some people came in, threw teargas and kind of threw everybody that was there out. They have now insisted that the collations should now cone to INEC headquarters.

“The problem was that our agents started calling us that they were not being allowed into the INEC headquarters. My Deputy and I came in here to find out why they are not allowing our agents into collation centre.

“There are too many funny things going on all of a sudden and there seems to be INEC complicity, police complicity working together and this cannot be right for democracy in this country.

“They are trying to suppress the will of the people in Edo State and it will not happen,” he said.

INEC halts collation, adjourns to Sunday 10am

After immense pressure from Governor Godwin Obaseki and other stakeholders from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decided to postpone the collation of results of the governorship election to 10am on Sunday September 22, 2024.

In a statement, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, announced the development in the early hours of the morning following increased pressure from the PDP for the umpire to stick to the dictates of the electoral law, citing an earlier decision to jettison collation procedures.

“This is to inform the general public, political stakeholders and observers that the collation of results for the ongoing Edo State Governorship election will resume today (Sunday) 22nd September, 2024 at 10.00am,” the REC said.

PDP supporters had stormed the State INEC office after the umpire had stopped collation in several local governments Edo South and moved the exercise to the state party secretariat over supposed security concerns.  

Governor Obaseki and other concerned stakeholders raised the alarm over skipping of the collation procedures, as the Deputy Governorship candidate of the PDP, Osarodion Ogie Esq., noting that collation was halted in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area and moved to the State INEC office with party agents restricted from accessing the collation exercise.