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The Peoples Democratic Party has rejected the results of the Edo State governorship election held on Saturday, September 21, 2024 over alleged irregularities and breach of due process in the collation of results.
The party which came second with its candidate, Asue Ighodalo scoring a total of 247,274 votes, petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), demanding the return “all collation at the wards, local governments to their lawful venues”.
The PDP collation agent in the election, Dr Iyoha Tony, made the demands in the petition in which the party alleged “fragrant disregard and breach of the electoral process in the collation of results of Edo State Governorship Election held on 21st September, 2024.”
The petition issued on Sunday and signed by Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, Edo State PDP Chairman, reads, “It has come to our attention that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin-City, Edo State, has taken steps to violently disregard and breach the stipulated process for the conduct of the ongoing Edo State Governorship election.
“Aside from the widespread failure and refusal to use the mandatory BVAS Machine for accreditation of voters in the voting centres in Edo North, there is the intentional refusal by electoral officers at various levels to duly and properly collate the election results in line with the mandatory provisions of the INEC Regulations.
“The officers of INEC have illegally and unlawfully moved the collation of Wards and Local Government results from the designated places to the INEC State Headquarters reportedly to give room for manipulation of the results in fragrant contravention of the provisions regulating the process.
“Of direct relevance are the provisions of the Part III Paragraphs 44-49 of the REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS, 2022, which provides as follows;
“‘44. Collation and declaration of results shall take place at locations designated by the Commission.
“45. Collation and Returning Officers as appointees of the Commission, shall abide by the oath of loyalty….. and act in accordance with extant Regulations and Guidelines of the Commission.
“47. The Collation and declaration of election results shall be done at the following levels depending on the type of election: i) Registration Area-RA/Ward (Collation for all elections)…
“ii) Local Government Area -LGA/Area Council (Collation for all elections).”
He added, “Furthermore, it is apparent from the available records that the number of accredited voters on the BVAS Machine does not tally with the results returned from Estako West and Estako East LGAs, also in fragrant disregard to the provisions of the INEC Regulations.
“Clearly, results from polling units particularly in Estako West, Estako East, Akoko Edo LGAs as well as Ikpoba-Okha Ward 10, where the BVAS accreditation records are less than the votes returned must not be accepted for collation.”
According to him, “Following from the above, we demand: To query the BVAS machine in the aforementioned LGAS. Return all collation at the wards, local governments to their lawful venues.”
Meanwhile, INEC on Sunday night declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Monday Okpebholo, winner of the election.
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