Edo guber: PDP governors reel out collated results as Obaseki defends visit to INEC office

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, said he was at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the early hours of Sunday for information on what was stalling the collation of results of the governorship election.

In a press briefing alongside Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of Adamawa; and Asue Ighodalo, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Obaseki said it was after he visited the INEC office that the commission issued a statement to say it had postponed collation to 10am.

Fintiri reeled out results of some local governments, stating that the figures were those received from party agents, and that he was not usurping the powers of the electoral umpire by his action.

“I did not announce results, I only informed the public of the exact figures from our collation agents that was ongoing before INEC disrupted the process… INEC should be accused of violating the Electoral Act, not me,” Fintiri said.

“It took the protest of Governor Obaseki, who made an entry to the state INEC office and registered the displeasure of the PDP with the irregularities of the collation process, for things to move forward.

“We thereby demand a restoration of the collation process in accordance with the Electoral Act and the INEC rules and regulations for this election.

“Any other illegal and unlawful action going forward will be a violation of the will of the people and abuse of the Electoral Act.”

BACKGROUND

At around 2am on Sunday, Obaseki visited the INEC office and was there for almost three hours until chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) protested his presence at the facility.

Obaseki eventually left the INEC headquarters around 4:30am. He was escorted out of the premises by police officers.

During the briefing, Obaseki said his visit to INEC yielded results.

“At about 1am, I got a report that collation was supposed to have been moved to the INEC head office. I also got reports from our agents that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation centre,” he said.

“At that point in time, I called the REC to find explanation as to what was going on. There was no response. I went to INEC to meet with the REC to try and understand what steps the INEC was taking to continue the process of collation.

“When I got in there at about 2am, I did not see any collation taking place and the REC refused to come out to explain what the situation was.

“Subsequently, the DIG police, Frank Mba came in and had a meeting with me where I explained that if INEC was postponing or stopping the collation process, as part of the rule, they should inform the public and citizens on what was next.

“At about 3am, there was no information from INEC as to what was going on and what was going to happen next.

“It was after my meeting with Mr. Frank Mba that INEC released a statement at about 5am this morning informing the public that collation process will start at 10am.

“My going there was to obtain information from INEC because they had refused to put any information in the public domain as to what was going on.”