‘Our mandate was stolen’ — PDP supporters stage protest outside INEC office in Edo

Some supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday protested outside the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) office in Edo.

The protesters chanted anti-establishment slogans and songs, while demanding a reversal of the result of the recent governorship poll.

They held aloft placards with inscriptions that read: ‘INEC give us our mandate back’, ‘APC stole PDP mandate and they must return it’, ‘INEC sack Edo state resident electoral commissioner’, and ‘INEC why did you manipulate IReV results’.

Police operatives could be seen milling around and guarding the gates of the office.

On September 22, Monday Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared 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 PDP, who polled 247,274 votes.

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

Before the final declaration, some PDP supporters staged a protest against the collation of the results outside the INEC office.

After the declaration, Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of Adamawa and 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 had said.

Ighodalo has vowed to challenge the outcome of the election in court.