‘Results unduly favour one party‘ — Atedo Peterside criticises INEC’s conduct of Edo election

Atedo Peterside, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Anap Foundation, says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is failing to conduct credible polls in the country.

Commenting on the September 21 governorship election in Edo state, Peterside expressed concerns over alleged manipulation and rigging that marred the polls.

BACKGROUND

Monday Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared winner of the September 21 poll by INEC.

Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who got 247,274 votes.

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

After the polls, Samson Itodo, executive director of Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation (CSO), said major political parties engaged in vote buying.

According to him, Yiaga and other CSOs noticed that parties handed out N5,000 to N10,000 to voters.

Yiaga also 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.

During the polls, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested some suspects for alleged vote buying.

‘ELECTION RESULTS UNFAIRLY FAVORED ONE PARTY’

Speaking on ‘Prime Time’, a programme on Arise Television, on Monday, Peterside said Nigerians deserve an explanation from INEC for the “vote manipulations favouring only one political party”.

“I think I’ve already gone public, in the sense of after they Edo election. I put out a tweet. I went on to INEC IREV when I heard all the complaints from people who were on the field in Edo,” he said.

“I checked the results sheets hoping that I would conclude people were just making noise over nothing. Unfortunately, some of the results I saw there shocked me.

“In an election there was an average turnout 22% of the roundabout, one particular political party and I’m sure we can all guess which one —  was achieving a 98.5% turnout and results in some polling booths.

“In some polling booths, the total number of votes that same political party got was larger than the total number of voters that were accredited.

“I don’t waste my time blaming political parties. They are not the referee, they are not the umpire. We must hold INEC culpable. I got my data from INEC.”

Peterside emphasised that it is irregular to have an election where one party receives more votes than accredited voters.

“I’ve already said that INEC did very well in Osun State; all the results are still there on INEC IReV. However, since the presidential election, they started playing these funny games, and I can even tell you what the game is,” he said.

“Once voting ends, results are uploaded, but glitches occur when the favoured party isn’t doing well. Uploads stop, disappear for hours, then resurface with altered results sheets, changing the equation, as seen in Edo.

He expressed concerns that INEC’s conduct of the Edo state election may affect the confidence of voters in the commission’s ability to hold credible polls.