Osamagbe Imadiyi.
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s announcement of the results of the Edo State gubernatorial election was formally rejected by the Peoples Democratic Party on Monday. The party also requested that the electoral body immediately review the poll results.
Umar Damagum, the acting National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, urged Nigerians to back the party’s rejection of the election results during a press conference in Abuja. All Progressives Congress senator Monday Okpebholo received 291,667 votes, more than twice as many as PDP candidate Asue Ighodalo (247,274) and Labour Party candidate Olumide Akpata (22,763) combined to win the Edo gubernatorial election, according to results released on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The APC won ten of the state’s eight Local Government Areas, while the PDP won eight.
Damagum asserted that Ighodalo, the PDP candidate, was the election’s legitimate victor and said that the poll fell short of the required democratic standards. “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,” Damagum said.
“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 urged the people of Edo State to remain resilient in the face of the election’s “brazen rigging.”The acting chairman of the PDP declared that Ighodalo was duly elected as the next governor of Edo, and he emphasized that only the electorate’s will, as expressed at the polling places, should be respected.
In a related development, a senior PDP National Working Committee member expressed skepticism about how the party expected Ighodalo to win the poll in light of internal party conflicts at the state and national levels. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject. Ikenga Ugochinyere, a prominent member of the House of Representatives and leader of the PDP, chastised certain party members for orchestrating the PDP candidate’s defeat in the Edo State governorship election on September 21.
