Fintiri: I weep for Nigeria — Edo election was rape of democracy

Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of Adamawa state, says Nigeria’s democracy experienced yet another attack in Edo over the weekend.

On September 22, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the Edo governorship election.

Okpebholo, a serving senator, won the election with 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 247,274 votes.

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

Fintiri, who was the chairman of the PDP campaign council for the election, said the poll was marred by “vote-buying, disruption of collation processes, and suspicious results”.

“I weep for Nigeria’s democracy after witnessing the shameful Edo Gubernatorial poll,” Fintiri posted on X.

Before the final results were announced, Fintiri held a press conference alongside Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo; and Asue Ighodalo, candidate of the PDP in the election.

At the briefing, the Adamawa governor reeled out collated results of some Edo LGAs, and was immediately criticised by politicians on the other side of the divide for “usurping the powers” of the electoral umpire.

“The APC’s desperate attempts to discredit me by falsely claiming I announced results won’t distract from the real issue. I merely shared results from INEC’s Irev portal, as collated by INEC from the various Local Government Areas,” Fintiri added.

“What’s truly shameful is APC’s national chairman flying into Edo with a private jet on election day, defying movement restrictions, while their Governors used armoured escorts to intimidate voters.

“This blatant disregard for democratic norms is the real brigandage.

“Nigerians are outraged, slamming INEC for compromising and favouring APC. The reported vote-buying, disruption of collation processes, and suspicious results with more votes than accredited voters undermine trust in our democracy.

“Democracy indeed is under attack. We must condemn this rape of democracy and demand accountability. The world is watching, and Nigeria deserves better.”

Fintiri had also alleged that agents of the PDP were denied access to the collation centre.