- As PDP Rejects Result
A civil society group, Yiaga Africa has condemned the results of the Edo State governorship poll conducted on Saturday, saying that it failed the integrity test in line with democratic standards for a free, fair and credible election.
A statement released yesterday and signed by its Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, and its Executive Director, Samson Itodo argued that the 2024 Edo governorship election failed the electoral integrity test due to the lack of post-election statement on the transparency at the results collation process, which according to it, led to the manipulation of what came out to be announced as the results.
It said, “while key processes such as accreditation, voting, counting, and recording of results at the polling units substantially complied with procedures, the results collation process was compromised by the actions of some biased INEC officials in connivance with other actors.
“This manipulation severely undermines the overall integrity of the election.
The group said it concluded after it deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Edo State governorship election.
The method, it said, involved 300 stationary and 25 roving observers covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 local government areas.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Monday Okpebholo winner after defeating his main challengers, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party.
The APC candidate polled 291,667 votes, defeating Ighodalo, who garnered 247,274 votes. Akpata of the LP finished a distant third with 22,763 votes.
Statement On INEC’s Official Results
The group said it recorded incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers and party agents and the collation of results.
It added, “Yiaga Africa’s estimates are based on official results announced at the polling unit, from a representative random sample of polling units. As highlighted in our pre-election report, Yiaga Africa will amongst other factors consider the quality of election day processes in assessing whether the 2024 Edo governorship satisfies the electoral integrity test. In this regard, Yiaga Africa considered the integrity of accreditation, voting, counting, and collation of results. “INEC consistently applied its guidelines in managing the accreditation and voting process in a significant number of polling units.
Despite some isolated incidents, Post-Election Statement on the September 2024 Edo State Governorship Election of inadequate election materials, the BVAS machines functioned optimally, and all voters in the queue by 2:30pm were allowed to vote, despite the late opening of polls. The polling officials uploaded polling unit results on the IReV in a timely manner, making it possible for citizens to access polling unit level results.
“However, the incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers and party agents and the collation of results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results.”
Inconsistencies In Officially Announced Results Based on reports received from the sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa can project the expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin.
However, it said it is only able to verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins. “If the official results do not fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the results may It said, have been manipulated. “According to INEC, the All Progressive Congress (APC) received 51.1% of the votes, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 43.3% of the votes, and the Labor Party garnered 4.0% of the votes. Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC. For instance, the official results announced by INEC for APC in Oredo and Egor, LGAs fall outside the PRVT estimate. In Esan West LGA, the official results for PDP fall outside the PRVT estimates. Also, in Oredo LGA, the official results as announced for LP fall outside the PRVT estimates. These inconsistencies with Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the level of collation.
“The disparities between the official results released by INEC and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate manipulation of results during the collation process. Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials who interfered with the collation process. Yiaga Africa notes that the cases of disruption in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs in the course of collation created opportunities for election manipulation, raising significant concerns about the credibility and integrity of the results collation process.” The group, however, said INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 18 LGA released are consistent with its WTV PRVT estimates.
It said, “Yiaga Africa is able to estimate that turnout is between 20.9% and 24.1% (22.5% ± 1.6%), while INEC’s official result is 22.4%. Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates for rejected ballots are between 2.2% and 3.2% (2.7% ± 0.5%).”
… PDP Rejects Result
In a related development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has officially rejected the Edo State Governorship election results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
During a press conference in Abuja, PDP acting National Chairman Umar Damagum yesterday called on concerned Nigerians to support the party’s rejection of the election results. Damagum claimed that the PDP candidate, Ighodalo, was the legitimate winner of the election and alleged that the election did not meet the necessary democratic standards.
He stated, “The PDP therefore unequivocally rejects the final result of the Edo State Governorship election as declared by INEC as it did not meet the minimum standard for democracy, having not reflected the expressed will and aspiration of the people in line with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and INEC Guidelines for State Governorship Election.
“The PDP demands that INEC within the time stipulated by Section 65 of the Electoral Act, 2022 review the Edo State governorship election and announce results only as obtained from the genuine votes cast at the Polling Units.”
Damagum announced that the PDP would challenge the results declared by INEC in court and urged the people of Edo to stay strong and steadfast.
He stated, “From unfolding political events in the country, the latest being the brazen rigging of the Saturday, September 21, 2024, Edo State Governorship election by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in connivance with government-controlled agencies, it is clear that our democracy is under threat. “As you know and widely reported in all segments of the media, the 2024 Edo State Governorship election was barefacedly compromised by the APC in collusion with unpatriotic security operatives and heavily procured officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who viciously trampled on the votes of the people in defiance of the Law and total disregard to the sovereign will of the people of Edo State.
“You may recall that the PDP had on several occasions alerted of this sinister plot by the APC to subvert the election, the roles allegedly being played by AIG Zone 7, BennethIgwe and Edo State Commissioner of Police CP Nemo Edwin-Iwo and the appointment of a known APC apologist and supporter, Dr AnugbumOnuoha, as the Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC). “Several demands by our Party for the redeployment of these officials as well as the release of all arrested PDP members and supporters fell on deaf ears and tend to validate PDP’s suspicion of a top-level conspiracy to rig the Edo State governorship election.”
The PDP acting national chairman stated that the people of Edo State selected Ighodalo as their next governor and emphasized that only their will, as expressed at the polling units, should be respected.
He added, “Nigerians and the world watched in horror as the APC-compromised security operatives and thugs unleashed terror, harassed, arrested and detained PDP members and supporters, foisted siege mentality on the people, paved the way for APC agents and procured INEC officials to manipulate the ballot process, substitute genuine results from the Polling Units with fictitious figures and transferred the victory clearly won by our candidate, AsueIghodalo to the defeated APC candidate, Monday Okpebholo. “As Nigerians already know, despite the violence, intimidation and manipulations by the APC, results obtained from the Polling Units show that our candidate, Dr.AsueIghodalo clearly won the election before the figures were altered at the State collation exercise in favour of the defeated APC candidate.
When asked about their confidence in the judiciary, Damagum stated, “In this election, we shall once again test the level of preparedness of the judiciary to deliver justice where it is needed. Therefore, we cannot rule out a situation where justice will be dispensed, but the most important thing is that we shall subject them to greater scrutiny in the eyes of Nigerians. They say that when the judicial system does not work, then you don’t have a country. I don’t know if we will still have a country.”
