The Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate in the just-concluded gubernatorial election in Edo State, Asue Ighodalo, has conspicuously condemned the conduct of the exercise.
Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared a winner in the election having garnered 291,667 votes to defeat Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 247,274 votes and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) who came a distant third in the race with 22,763 votes.
INEC’s Returning Officer for the poll, Prof Faruk Kuta, declared Okpebholo the winner after rigorous collation exercise.
Reacting to the development in an interview with BBC after the exercise, Ighodalo blamed Okpebholo’s victory on the complicity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He further accused the electoral body of blatantly conducting the worse election in the history of the country.
He said, “The day started rather on an even counter and I thought we’d probably have a good, transparent and effective election. But as things were unfolding, it became clear that the election wouldn’t going to be fairly and freely conducted. I’m very disappointed. This is probably the worse election in the history of our country being conducted in Edo State.
“We saw yesterday certain moves that obviously suggest attempt to manipulate the results of the election. Many things began to occur. We saw results being thrown up, cases of results much more than the total number of voters being accredited. And I have said it many times, manipulation can’t happen without complicity and connivance by INEC.”
The gubernatorial candidate stressed the need to turn a leaf, adding Edo people are peace-loving and can’t accept injustice.
Meanwhile, Governor Godwin Obaseki and other PDP chieftains have described the process as travesty of democracy.
The governor, however, called for calm in the state, stressing the party will toe the line of law to seek redress.
