INEC, Edo govt connived to give Obaseki victory – PDP

The ruling All Progressives Congress, on Thursday, won the Edo State gubernatorial election.
The APC candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki, polled 319,483 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Pastor Ize- Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party, who polled 253,173 votes. Obaseki won in 13 out of the 18 local government areas of the state.
According to details of the results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, total votes cast were 613,244, out of which 582,299 were declared valid and 30,945 votes were rejected. The APC candidate defeated his main rival, Ize-Iyamu, by 66,310 votes. Meanwhile, as INEC declared Obaseki as the winner of the election, the state chapter of the PDP rejected the results of the poll hours before its announcement.
But in a swift reaction, APC described the PDP’s action as that of a “bad loser.”
The PDP rejected the results at a press conference addressed by its state Chairman, Mr. Dan Orbih in Benin, the state capital. The party’s governorship candidate in the election, Mr Osagie Ize-Iyamu, also attended the press conference.
The party and its standard bearer said they could not have accepted such results because they were “fabricated and predetermined” by INEC and Edo State Government.
Orbih alleged that the results being announced by INEC were completely different from what the party got from it agents and independent observers. The Edo PDP chairman said, “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 and we are coming out early enough to make this known.”
The PDP governorship candidate, on his part, agreed with his party’s position, saying, “The results are not a true reflection of what happened on the field. The INEC only played a script written by the Government of Edo.” But the APC Chairman in Edo State, Mr. Anselm Ojezua, said that the rejection of the election results by the PDP was an act of a bad loser. Ojezua argued that the entire election process had been very peaceful.
He said, “INEC was efficient in delivery of materials to ensure that they got to locations on time,” he said.
The APC chairman, however, advised the opposition party to direct its grievances to the appropriate quarters.
INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, said that the APC candidate had met all the conditions required to be returned as the Edo State governor-elect.