The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to a report from the election observer YIAGA Africa regarding the recent Edo governorship polls.
In a statement released on Tuesday, signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka, the APC urged Yiaga Africa to “quit second-guessing INEC on the Edo gubernatorial election result.”
The APC criticised YIAGA Africa’s report, describing it as as “a travesty, replete with methodological flaws, politicised observations, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and called its credibility into question.”
“Alleging that results were manipulated without hard facts and figures but based on some statistical guesswork is a clear disservice to the electoral process,” the statement partly read.
“Election observation missions are not election management agencies, and cannot usurp INEC’s statutory authority as the sole election management body in Nigeria. Doing so would constitute a clear breach of the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the statement added.
News Central reports that various civil society organisations (CSOs) that monitored the Edo State governorship election raised concerns about the integrity of the process.
The Situation Room, a coalition of these organisations, stated that the results from several polling units were altered at the coalition centres, declaring that the election lacked credibility.
YIAGA Africa, which deployed 300 stationary and 25 roving observers using its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology, also criticised the election’s conduct.
They reported that the declared results lacked integrity due to widespread irregularities, including the alteration of results by collation officers.
In light of these allegations, the CSOs called on INEC to review the results based on the information uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, in accordance with section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has indicated plans to challenge the declaration of Monday Okpebholo from the APC as the winner of the election and the governor-elect of Edo State in court.