With results from 4,348 or 96.22 per cent of the total 4,519 polling booths uploaded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on its IReV portal, yesterday’s off-cycle governorship election in Edo State is turning out to be a tight race between Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The camps of the two leading contestants were upbeat about their chances, while Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) is trailing a distant third.
Action is expected to move to the 18 local government secretariats where the results from the wards will be collated and from there to the State Collation Centre in Benin for formal presentation.
News Central’s Bettina Nwelih reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin is being guarded by armed security operatives from the military, police and the secret service.
Results declared at the various polling units yesterday showed that Okpebholo got 102 votes at his Unit 1,Ward 2 Udomi Uwessan in Irru,Esan Central while Ighodalo got one and Akpata 1.
Okpebholo received 403 votes at Ward 10, Polling Unit 1, Iyamho, Etsako West Local Government Area base of APC leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole while the PDP and ADP had one vote each.
Ighodalo won in his own booth too at Unit 003 in Idinrio Vocational Centre, Okaegben-Ewohimi in Esan Southeast LGA with 200 votes, leaving 45 for Okpebholo.
The APC governorship running mate, Dennis Idahosa, showed his strength in his Iguobazuwa West Ward, polling unit 3, securing 131 votes for APC and leaving 12 for PDP.
Governor Godwin Obaseki delivered his polling unit 19 at Ward 4, Oredo LGA for Ighodalo, who got 127 votes as against 5 for the APC candidate and 11 for Akpata.
Akpata was humbled in his Polling Unit 11, Ward 6 Oredo LGA where he got only 31 votes as against 41 for Ighodalo.
Speaking to reporters shortly after casting his vote yesterday, Okpebholo said INEC was getting the conduct of the election right.
“What I am seeing here is testimony that INEC is getting it right,” he said.
“PDP or whatever will not get one vote here because this is my home and my people love me. I have nothing to fear.
“What they are saying about security is hyping. No knockout or a stick of matches. It is just to scare people away from voting.
“You know Obaseki… I don’t know… his wisdom I don’t know. He wanted to cause fire in Edo State, but by the grace of God, everything is moving perfectly.”
Ighodalo also spoke to reporters after voting at Okaegben-Ewohimi.
He said from the reports from PDP’s leaders, members and coordinators across Edo, the poll was peaceful and going on smoothly with massive turnout albeit with late arrival of electoral materials
He said: “Our people have been patient, and I love the way they have been patient, though they are here now.
“I want to keep an open mind, because we had rumour before that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been compromised, but I do not want to believe.
“I want to give the benefit of the doubt that INEC will create a free and fair level-playing field.
“What I heard before was that INEC would be suppressed in our strongholds, but I still want to give benefit of the doubt, and let us see how things will go in the next few hours.
“We noticed that in many of our strongholds, there was delay a bit. I do not want to jump to conclusions, because the INEC Chairman (Prof. Mahmood Yakubu) has assured us that they are going to do everything humanly possible to ensure free-and-fair election, and I do not see any reason why we should not believe them, and the rest of the day will show whether they truly acted to their words.
“In one of the wards here, Ward 10 in my local government, there is no material, no officials, and we do not have anything yet. But it may be because of the distance.
“I want everybody to be calm and should come out to vote. They should not be intimidated.
“They should come out in numbers to vote. They should not be afraid of anything, because when you come out to vote, our people have been patient, and I love the way they have been, though they are here.
“I want to keep an open mind, because we had rumours before that INEC had been compromised. But I do not want to believe; I want to give the benefit of the doubt that INEC will create a free and fair, level-playing field.”
The governorship candidate of PDP in Edo also complained of indiscriminate arrest of members of his party.
He said: “One thing that is bothering me is that there are people moving around and not in police or army uniform, and they are arresting our supporters.
“Like we have in Uromi Ward 8, Unit 3, one of our men was arrested by some men in mufti, carrying guns.
“Nobody should carry gun to the polling unit; it is against the law, rules and regulations. You will prevail, but when you allow yourself to be cowed or intimidated, then your will is subverted and what they need today (September 21) is for the will of the people to prevail.
“I am not happy with the process that delayed the coming of the materials. This is a single state election. INEC has all the time to prepare. We are not comfortable with the little shenanigans that are going on, particularly from the APC guys.
“There is rumour that they are trying to undermine the election process. Many of them have been caught with ballot papers and Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). The worst is that they go round trying to buy votes. They buy votes for N15,000 to N20,000. They are trying everything to subvert the process.
“We will win this election by a landslide, and move our state forward by God’s grace. If there is anybody at home, please come out and cast your vote.
“The Nigerian military has made me proud. They have taken charge and have shown great responsibility. They have shown that they can protect the people, and I am extremely proud.”
He said: “It is laughable when I hear this kind of allegation. You all have been monitoring the process. Have you seen where they are sharing money?
“People turned out in large numbers to vote for us because they want good government.
“During our campaign, people came out to see me, not because I wanted to give them something, but because of what I have done for them while I was in the office as the governor.”
The former governor, who is also the senator representing Edo North Senatorial District of the state, said he had not received any report of violence from anywhere across the state.
He expressed satisfaction over the peaceful conduct of the election across the state, while also commending the elderly ones for turning out to vote at the election.
According to him, their decision is borne out of their desire to see a better Edo for their children.
“I am very enthusiastic to see the elderly ones coming out to vote in this election.
“This shows their resolve to see their children having better life,” he added.
‘We’re probing two formal complaints’
INEC confirmed last night that it had commenced investigation into two formal complaints lodged with it in respect of the election.
It said one of the complaints had to do with “wrong figures entered into polling unit result sheets.”
“This is the second complaint we have received out of the 4,519 polling units used for the election. The Commission will immediately investigate the matter and deal with any proven infraction,” it said on its X handle.
The PDP had demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of a presiding officer in the election for allegedly “brazenly allocating non-existent votes to the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Debo Ologunagba, said in a statement in Abuja that the official “criminally and fraudulently allocated 352 votes to the APC, 52 to the PDP and one to the LP, giving a total of 406 as votes cast” on the result sheet for Osholo Primary School Polling Unit, Weppa in Etsako East LGA.
The PDP described the PO’s action as “one of the many cases of electoral fraud, ballot manipulation, betrayal of public trust and crime against the state perpetrated in this election by the APC and unscrupulous INEC officials which must not go unpunished.”
It said the result for the polling booth should be cancelled and steps be taken to “address other such infractions in this election.”
APC alleges circulation of fake election result
The APC last night asked Edo State electorate to ignore fake results being circulated on social media in respect of the election.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Felix Morka, said the fake results were the handiwork of “certain political parties” peddling bogus figures of vote tallies in the ongoing Edo State Gubernatorial Election.
He said the APC said collation at the Ward level “is still ongoing and has yet to be concluded. Certainly, local government level collation has yet to begin in most of the LGAs in the state let alone concluded.
“Consistent with the Electoral Act, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the sole authorised body empowered to collate results at the Ward, Local Government and State levels, and to officially declare the result of the election.
“Our great party is comfortably in an early lead. However, as a responsible party, we will not attempt to preempt INEC’s conclusion of the election process and official declaration of final results.
“We urge members of the public to disregard this attempted misrepresentation and await INEC’s final verdict on the election.”
