As the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, commences the final collation of the Saturday’s Governorship election in Edo State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national campaign council of the election has kicked against the results of 12 Local Governments.
Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the national chairman of the campaign council kicked against the collation of the 12 local governments on Sunday at a press conference in Benin City.
Fintiri, briefed the press along with Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Kefas Agbu of Taraba, Sherrif Oborevwori of Delta, Asue Ighodalo, the PDP governorship candidate and Mathew Iduoriwekemwen, the State Director General of the campaign council.
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He listed the controvesial local governments to include Esan Central, Esan North East, Esan South East, Esan West, Igueben,
Etsako Central and Orhionmwon.
Others are Ovia North East, Ovia South West, Owan West, Owan East and Uhunmwonde local governments.
The press briefing titled,” update on the illegal interruption of collation of Edo State governorship election results,” the camapign council demanded for a restoration of the collation process in accordance with the Electoral Act and the INEC rules and regulation for the election.
Fintiri who is also the governor of Adamawa state, opined that any other illegal and unlawful actions going forward would be a violation of the will of the people and an abuse of the Electoral Act 2022.
In the contentious collation results, the governors said PDP won in eight local governments out of the 12 local governments.
The local governments are Esan Central, Esan North East, Esan South East, Igueben, Orhionmwon, Ovia North East, Ovia South West and Uhunmwonde while APC won the remaining four which are Esan West, Etsako Central, Owan East and Owan West.
He alleged that the collation violently interrupted in several local government areas across the State.
“The collation process was violently interrupted in several local government areas across the State. In Edo South, local government collation processes were stopped in Oredo, Ikpoba-Okha, and Egor and moved illegally to the State Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benin on the instructions of an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) in complete breach of the statutory collation process.
“Affected Party Agents and representatives were then ordered to converge on the INEC State Headquarters in Aduwawa, Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area for the completion of the collation exercise. Upon arrival, agents of the PDP were not allowed into INEC State Office for the exercise. On the other hand, agents of the APC were allowed unfettered access into the INEC premises to participate in the collation process. This was also in breach of the Electoral Act section on neutrality as well as the rules and regulations published for these elections.
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“At about 9pm senior party officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) accompanied by the police stormed the Etsako West Local Government collation center and began shooting indiscriminately. As a result of the attack the council Vice Chairman, Honorable Benji Ojetu was left in critical condition from a shooting injury. Because of this assault, the expected results from Wards 7 and 11 were not delivered.
“At the INEC state office a 2km-long garrison barricade was created by the Police to cordon-off access, thereby restricting movement in the area.
“It took the protest of Governor Godwin Obaseki to make an entry into the State INEC office and register the displeasure of the PDP with the irregularities of the collation process”,he alleged.
He added that at the point of the truncation of the collation exercise, the 12 local governments have already been collated.
