PDP Writes INEC Chairman, Describes Election Results A ‘Terrible Embarrassment’ To Commission

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has frowned at some irregularities spotted in the results of Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State announced on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) describing them as “extremely scandalous and a brazen attempt to steal the mandate of the PDP, and also a terrible embarrassment to the commission”.

The PDP therefore demanded the immediate re-collation and re-computation of the actual results for the various polling units in some highlighted local government areas “in compliance with the INEC guidelines and regulations which mandates that votes from various units and wards be properly collated”.

In a petition dated September 22, 2024, addressed to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, and signed by the Edo State chairman of the PDP, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, the aggrieved party carpeted the Electoral Officers appointed by INEC to oversee the election, of making “entries that are totally different from the actual results as uploaded on the INEC IREV, thereby unjustly inflating votes in Favour of the APC and deducting the votes of the PDP”.

The letter, titled: “RE: Protest Against Manufactured Votes and Unjust Inflation of APC Votes And Deduction of PDP Votes In the Collation of Results of Edo State Governorship Election Held On 21st September 2024”, detailed discrepancies in figures posted on the INEC portal and what was announced by electoral officers.

Citing specific instances of such alleged irregularities, Aziegbemi said in Akoko-Edo, “A simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV shows that the APC obtained 25,010 votes while 34,847 votes was recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer. While for the PDP, a collation of the votes from the results uploaded on the IREV is 18,620 but 15,865 was returned on the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer.

“It would interest you that in Ward 9 Akoko Edo LGA, from the 36 Polling Unit results uploaded on the IREV, the total votes obtained by APC is 2,350 while 9104 was entered into the EC8B result for APC. The total votes for PDP are 1359, while 633 was entered in the EC8B. Also, in Ward 6 Akoko Edo LGA, where elections did not hold in Ward 6 Units 12, 17, 15, 18, 14 and 16, results were returned for the said polling units in the Ward Result sheet (EC8B).

Aziegbemi said in Egor local government area, “A simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV shows that the APC obtained 10,972 votes while 16,760 votes were recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer. While for the PDP, a collation of the votes from the results uploaded on the IREV is 14,485 but 14,658 was returned on the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer”.

The PDP pointed out to INEC that “that the collation of the Egor LGA was not done at the designated LGA centre but was moved to the INEC State HQ and the PDP agent was not allowed access to be part of the exercise”.

Contesting the result declared for Etsako West local government area, the PDP state chairman similarly noted that a simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV “shows that the APC obtained 29,858 votes, while 32,107 votes was recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer”, adding that “While for the PDP, a collation of the votes from the results uploaded on the IREV is 16,712, but 17,483 was returned on the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer”.