Asue Ighodalo: I’ll reclaim my mandate | PDP didn’t engage in vote buying

Asue Ighodalo, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Edo governorship poll, says he would reclaim his “stolen mandate” at the tribunal.

Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, on Thursday, Ighodalo said his party did not partake in vote buying during the election.

Ighodalo explained that his legal team identified over 160 polling units where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not deployed.

“There is a lot of data, information, evidence that we have. We are fully confident that going through the tribunal, we will win the case,” he said.

“We will regain our mandate and we are clear without any doubt that we were the winners of the election last Saturday.

“We didn’t rig. When APC and INEC saw that APC was losing woefully, they then subverted the electoral laws and the guidelines.

“Collation is done at the polling units, and then you go to the ward, and then the local government collation centre, and then the state. There was a jump, from ward straight to the state.

“There was a collusion between the INEC and the police to suppress the will of the people of Edo state. People of Edo state purposely voted for us. We won the election clearly.

“It is painful because you have many young people who felt that they were disenfranchised in the past; they feel that their votes were not counted and they asked what kind of democracy we run.

“I had been trying to encourage them to make sure your votes count but we have serious collusion by INEC and the APC working towards votes not counting.

“But this time around we will go through the judicial process and the vote will count. We are quite clear that with the evidence we have, we will show clearly that we won the election. And the mandate of the people will be upheld.”

‘MINTED NOTES’

Ighodalo said the PDP frowned at the vote buying that became the story of the election.

“I can state categorically, we were not involved in vote buying at all. APC agents came with minted notes straight from the CBN and they were offering N25,000, N30,000 and N50,000 per vote,” he added.

“What our guys did was to go to them and harass them and tell them that you can’t come here to buy votes. But we were not engaged in vote buying in any way. I’m clear about that.

“We didn’t even need to go and buy votes. The people of Edo state were solidly with us. It’s only when you’re not sure of your capabilities… when you cannot perform, that’s when you do underhand things.

“And APC, through this election, with the connivance, complicity and support of INEC, undermined the whole democratic process.”

Ighodalo added that accepting Monday Okpebholo’s offer of friendship is off the table.

“Because the mandate is stolen, there is no way you can accept these hands of fellowship or friendship,” he said.

“I will stay with the people of Edo state, who fully gave me the mandate of their free will, and I will go into the courts and the tribunal to reclaim our mandate and then form the government.”

BACKGROUND

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Okpebholo winner of the September 21 election after he secured 291,667 votes.

The APC candidate defeated his closest challenger, Ighodalo of the PDP who got 247,274 votes.

Olumide Akpata, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), came a distant third with 22,763 votes.

Yiaga Africa had reported incidents of vote buying and polling unit disruption during the election.

The CSO said vote buying was observed in several LGAs including Ikpoba-Okha, Igueben, Esan West, Akoko Edo, Owan West, and Uhunmode.

It added that votes were sold for a paltry N10,000 in the six LGAs.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had also arrested some suspects for alleged vote buying.

On Monday, Okpebholo and Dennis Idahosa, his deputy, received their certificates of return at the INEC headquarters.

The PDP and LP have rejected the outcome of the election.