APC’s Monday Okpebholo wins Obaseki’s LGA

Monday Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the Edo state governorship election, has won Oredo LGA after polling 30,780 votes.

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, is from Oredo LGA.

Asue Ighodalo, governorship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), secured 24,938 votes, while Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party garnered 5,389 votes.

Earlier on Sunday, Obaseki visited the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and spent about three hours.

He was eventually escorted out of the INEC headquarters by police operatives around 4:30am.

The governor said at a press conference that he was at the INEC office to meet the resident electoral commissioner after getting reports that the commission had stopped collation of results.

On September 14, Obaseki declared the governorship election in the state as “a do-or-die affair”.

“This election is do or die; if they do, we will die. Next week Saturday by this time, vote for the PDP candidate to become the next governor,” Obaseki has said.

On September 19, Obaseki said that the PDP will accept the outcome of a “properly conducted election” in the state.

Obaseki asked security personnel deployed for the election to ensure that Edo people are allowed to freely elect candidates of their choice.

“We are not asking for any favour but are stating that Edo citizens should be free to go to the polls to elect the candidates of their choice. We will accept the outcome of a properly conducted election,” he said.

“For eight years, the security forces in the state have been highly cooperative in helping us address security concerns.

“Together, we have established Forward Operating Bases and designed a digitised security architecture that has made Edo one of the safest states in the nation.”