Edo Decides: PDP Demands Review of Collected Results in 18 Local Governments

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State has protested against the alleged rigging of results in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

DAILY POST reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has conducted an out-of-cycle gubernatorial election in the state on September 21, 2024.

After the elections, PDP governors protested at a press conference against the comparison of results in 12 local governments.

During a press conference on Sunday at the state government headquarters, party chairman Tony Aziegbemi accused all 18 local governments of manipulating the results to favour the APC.

Aziegbemi said there were discrepancies in the results submitted on INEC Irev, EC8C and EC8B forms.

He, however, requested the Commission Chairman Mahmood Yakubu to re-analyse the collected results before the final announcement.

He particularly criticised the results in Akoko-Edo, Etsako West and Yegor constituencies, where the party lost to the main opposition party in the state, the APC.

According to him, “it has come to our attention that the electoral officials appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the Edo State governorship election made entries that were totally different from the actual results recorded in the INEC IREV, wrongly inflating the vote count in favour of the APC and deducting votes for the PDP.

“In Akoko-Edo Local Government, a simple tabulation of all votes recorded in the polling results submitted to IREV shows that APC polled 25,010 votes while the EC8C constituency declared by the LGA Electoral Officer recorded 34,847 votes.

“In the case of PDP, the tabulation of votes from results sent to IREV shows 18,620, while 15,865 were cast in EC8C, according to a statement from the LGA Electoral Officer.

“It would interest you to know that in Ward 9 of Akoko Edo LGA from the 36th electoral unit
results uploaded on IREV, the total votes obtained by APC is 2,350, while 9,104 were entered into the EC8B result for APC. The total votes for PDP is 1,359, while 633 were entered into the EC8B result.

“Furthermore, in Akoko Edo LGA ward 6 where no elections were held in units 12, 17, 15, 18, 14 and 16 of ward 6, the results for the said polling units were given in the ward result sheet (EC8B).

“In Yegor Local Government, a simple tabulation of all votes recorded in the voting results submitted to IREV shows that APC polled 10,972 votes while 16,760 votes were recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Electoral Officer, while in the case of PDP, the tabulation of votes from the results submitted to IREV is 14,485 but 14,658 votes were cast in the EC8C declared by the LGA Electoral Officer.

“Also in Etsako West LGA, it is worthy of note that the Egor LGA data collation was not held at the designated LGA centre but was moved to the INEC State headquarters and the PDP agent was not allowed entry to participate in the exercise.

“A simple tabulation of all votes recorded in the polling results submitted to the IREV shows that APC polled 29,858 votes while 32,107 votes were recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer. In the case of PDP, the tabulation of votes from the results submitted to the IREV is 16,712 but 17,483 were returned in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer,” he said.

In his opinion, the irregularities described above, which are very obvious, are extremely scandalous and constitute a brazen attempt to deprive the PDP of its mandate, as well as a terrible embarrassment for the commission.

Aziegbemi, however, demanded immediate re-tabulation and collation of the alleged actual results for the various polling units in the above mentioned local government areas in line with INEC guidelines and regulations which mandate the proper tabulation of votes from the various units and constituencies.