The
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Godwin Obaseki, has been declared
winner of the Edo State governorship election. The APC
candidate won majority of the votes cast, getting a total of 319,483 votes, the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced.
Mr.
Obaseki’s closest challenger, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, got 253,173 votes.
Mr.
Obaseki also won majority votes in 13 of the 18 local governments in the state,
losing the remaining five to the PDP candidate.
The INEC
chief returning officer in the state, Professor Kayode Soremekun, who announced
the final results, declared Mr. Obaseki the governor-elect of the South-South
state.
Meanwhile the
Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State has rejected the results of Wednesday’s
elections held in the state.
The News
Agency of Nigeria quotes the Edo PDP State chairman, Dan Orbi, as alleging that
the results were pre-determined and fabricated.
The party
rejected the results at a press conference addressed by Mr. Orbih, on Thursday
in Benin, NAN reports.
The press
conference was also attended the party’s governorship candidate in the
election, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
The party
and its candidate said they rejected the results because they were “fabricated
and a pre-determined” by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
and the Edo Government.
Mr. Orbih
said the results as they were being announced by the INEC, were at a complete
variance with what the party got from it agents and independent observers.
He said
the two-week extension of the poll by the electoral body was to allow for more
time to perfect the manipulation of the process.
“You will
recall that our state Publicity Secretary had briefed the press less than 48
hours to the elections on what is playing out now.
“If you go
by the results that were announced at the polling units and wards across the
state, it shows that PDP would have won by over 30,000 votes.
“What INEC
is announcing is clearly different from what we got from our agents and
independent observers in the 192 wards and over 2,000 units across the state.
“We are
rejecting these results as they were being announced by INEC and we are coming
out early enough to make this known,” he said.
The
chairman said the cancellation of some results on the basis of failed card
reader was part of a deliberate plan to also manipulate the poll.
He alleged
that the areas were results were canceled were stronghold of the PDP.
“I wonder
what the Incident Form is for. Voters should not be made to suffer unduly for
the inefficiency of card readers,” he said.
On his
part, the governorship candidate said he aligned himself with the position of
the party.
“The
results are not a true reflection of what happened in the field. The INEC only
played a script written by the Government of Edo,” he said.
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