September 22, (THEWILL) – The Edo State Governorship Election turned into a two-horse race by the evening of Saturday 21, 2024, after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had successfully uploaded 90 percent of the results from the polling units into its Result Viewing Portal, IREV.
The uploaded results as at press time, covered 4,266 out of the 4,519 polling units with tabulation of results at the wards and local government areas collation centres already ongoing through Saturday night into early Sunday. There were reports of disruptions of collation in Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha, the two most populous local government areas in the state and part of the battleground for the election in Edo South Senatorial District.
The winner/governor-elect is scheduled to be declared today by the Chief Returning Officer for the election after receiving results from the 18 local government areas at the INEC headquarters in Benin City, the state’s capital.
THEWILL’s sample of the results from the local governments areas across the three senatorial districts, namely Edo South, the Edo North and the Edo Central, showed the pre-poll three-horse race narrowing to two – Peoples Democratic Party’s Asue Ighodalo and All Progressives Congress’ Senator Monday Okpebholo. The Labour Party’s candidate, Olumide Akpata is trailing by a wide margin and effectively out of contention.
LAST MINUTE MANOEUVRE BY FRONT RUNNERS
In a last-minute attempt to swing voters’ sentiments to their advantage, supporters of the political parties in the state engaged in underhand tactics on Friday, the eve of election.
There was a move to disqualify Okpebholo through the courts over alleged age and birth falsification and forgery. It failed.
The Federal High Court, Abuja presided over by Justice O.C. Agbaza granted leave for the review of Magistrate Abubakar Mukhtar’s criminal summons while ruling in a motion exparte moved by the candidate’s counsel Adaze Emwanta.
Apata also scrambled to issue a last-minute disclaimer debunking a forged statement saying he had stepped out of the race and endorsed Ighodalo.
For Ighodalo, the attack was indirect. A one-page letter dated August 1, 2024 and addressed simply to Mr Governor and purportedly written by a former secretary to the state government and now deputy governorship candidate, Osarodion Ogie, urged Governor Godwin Obaseki to consider removing the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II as Chairman of Edo State Traditional Rulers and Chiefs.
After casting their votes at their polling units, Ighodalo, Akpata and Okebholo expressed satisfaction with the general voting process, though with some reservations about vote buying and late arrival of materials in some polling units.
While Akpata voted at Polling Unit 11, Ward 6 at the Ministry of Education, Iyaro in Oredo Local Government Area, Okpebholo voted at Polling Unit 1, Ward 2 in Udomi Primary School, Udomi, Irrua, Esan Central Local Government Area of the State. Ighodalo, who voted later than both of his rivals because of late arrival of materials and INEC officials, exercised his franchise at his Okaigben Ward 1, Unit 3, Idinrio Primary School, Okaigben, Ewohimi in Esan South-East Local Government Area at noon.
Accompanied by his wife, Ifeyinwa, Ighodalo addressed journalists, saying, “I have to give them (INEC) the benefit of the doubt. Though I heard that there were cases of voter suppression in PDP strongholds and vote buying in Etsako Local Government Area, I will still give them the benefit of the doubt. They are still within time. Since we are starting two hours behind schedule, they will have to extend the time for us.”
Also commenting, Okpebholo said, “What I am seeing here is testimony that INEC is getting it right. PDP or whatever will not get one vote here because this is my home, and my people love me. I have nothing to fear. What they are saying about security is hyping. No knockout or a stick of matches. It is just to scare people away from voting.”
Akpata expressed satisfaction with the voting process. He said,” I am impressed with the process so far. Despite the rain, people have come out to vote, which shows that they are yearning for change. For me everything has gone well in terms of accreditation and voting. I hope it is the same for every other voter.”
IGHODALO, OKPEBHOLO WIN POLLING UNITS, WARDS, AKPATA DEFEATED
Candidates of the PDP and APC, Asue Ighodalo and Monday Okpebholo won their polling units and wards in Edo Central Senatorial District, while Olumide Akpata of the LP lost his polling unit to Ighodalo by a small margin.
Ighodalo is also leading in Edo South, the stronghold of his party while Okpebholo is also ahead in Edo North, his party’s fortress. Both candidates are tied in Edo Central, their home districts.
Meanwhile, voters defied a downpour in Edo South Senatorial District and came out to vote.
APC, PDP CLAIM VICTORY
The APC in a statement by its national spokesman, Felix Morka said its candidate is leading according to results so far declared, but that it would not pre-empt the INEC in declaring victory until the conclusion of the process.
He said the party’s attention had been drawn to some bogus figures of vote tallies in the ongoing election being peddled on social media platforms by some political parties and the public to disregard them.
“Collation at the Ward level is still ongoing and has yet to be concluded. Certainly, Local Government level collation has yet to begin in most of the LGAs in the state let alone concluded.
“Consistent with the Electoral Act, the Independent National Electoral Commission is the sole authorized body empowered to collate results at the Ward, Local Government and State levels, and to officially declare the result of the election.
“Our great party is comfortably in an early lead, however, as a responsible Party, we will not attempt to pre-empt INEC’s conclusion of the election process and official declaration of final results. We urge members of the public to disregard this attempted misrepresentation and await INEC’s final verdict on the election,”Morka said.
Similarly, the PDP has insinuated that its candidate is leading and urged the APC and INEC to respect the will of voters. It counsels the APC to respect the will of the people of Edo State as expressed at the polling units.
“The PDP commends the people of Edo State for their resilience in enforcing their will at the polling units despite the schemes of the APC and charges them to remain alert in readiness to firmly defend their votes as they await the declaration of the final result heralding our victory,” a statement released by the party said.
The party also urged the INEC to ensure that “all results as announced at the polling units are transparently uploaded to the INEC Server and duly declared at the Collation Centers in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and INEC Guidelines for the Edo State governorship election.”
ISSUES THAT MOTIVATED VOTERS / BIG ISSUES
Kimpact Development Initiative’s Executive Director, Bukola Idowu in a study, disclosed that about five issues were on the front burner for voters in the state – Fulfilling civic duty, which attracted 11 percent of the voters; closeness to polling unit at 18 –percent; e-voting at 12 percent; secured electoral environment at 20 percent and candidates’ manifestos at 23 percent.
Other issues that mattered in the electoral process were what Samson Itodo, Executive Director of YIAGA Africa described as “big issues.” They include Godfatherism, money politics, zoning and power sharing, as well as pre and post- election issues and debates
He disclosed that six major local government areas were targeted by vote buyers. They were Orhionwon, Oredo, Igueben, Etsako, Ovia and Ikpoba-Okha, all of which are heavy vote catching areas.
THE BIG NUMBERS
A total of 2,628,025 voters registered for the election that took place in 4,519 polling units in 192 wards in 18 local government areas. According to senatorial zones, Edo South had 55 per cent of PVC collection, followed by Edo North with 27 per cent and Edo Central with 16.2 per cent.
Remarkably, Edo South, which makes up 57.54 per cent of the state’s population, also has six out of its seven local governments with the largest number of PVC collection that can swing the votes to determine a winner in the race, though each candidate must satisfy the law to emerge winner by winning majority of the votes cast and 25 percent of votes cast in 12 out of the 18 LGAs.
In total, the figure for registered voters in Edo South is 1,526,717, Edo North is 620,412 and Edo Central is 443,474, according to INEC.
SECURITY
Deputy Inspector-General of Police, DIC, Frank Mba, who is one of the senior officers supervising the 35,000 police personnel deployed to enforce law and order alongside 8,000 soldiers and some members of the National Security Defense Corps, restated the earlier promise by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, that the police would be professional in their conduct.
He submitted that as an off-cycle election, the 2024 Edo Governorship Election had some inbuilt tension arising from the participation of various interests, ranging from politicians across political parties, youth corps members serving as INEC adhoc staff, election observers and journalists, whose security were of paramount concern to the police.
“These considerations are putting pressure on our policing structure, though that is what we are trained for, paid for and clothed for,” Mba said.
He addressed other areas that equally posed a challenge to the police. One was vote buying, which he admitted was a “most difficult offence to manage because the bulk of it does not happen in the open but in homes, behind closed doors and private places which the police do not have the capacity to police.”
He added that the police will effectively deal with offences that are committed in the open and which it is able to monitor through its intelligence network.
Mba said that to deal a blow to vote buying, the police had met with and struck a deal with sister agencies like the army, Navy and EFCC team, as well as the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps. The immediate result of that meeting has been the intelligence that “Some people in Benin City have printed fake voter cards, hired thugs to wear legitimate police uniforms and deployed fake election observers.”
Addressing the claim of some political parties that police arrested some of their members, DIG Mba said, “We made some arrests as part of the ongoing operations of the police.”
INEC PROMISES FAIRNESS, IMPARTIALITY
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) extended voting time in the Edo State governorship election in areas where there was late arrival of materials and officials.
INEC National Commissioner and member of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, said this on Saturday.
The governorship candidate of the PDP, Ighodalo, had called for the extension of voting time, following the delayed arrival of materials and INEC officials in his Idinrio community in Ewohimi, Esan South-East Local Government Area.
Voting was also delayed at Unit 5, Ward 11, Azama Primary School, in Azama, Etsako West Local Government Area, as the BIVAS machine for voters accreditation and onward voting did not function in the polling unit where Philip Shaibu, former Deputy Governor of Edo State, registered.
Speaking on Saturday afternoon, Haruna said the Commission was monitoring the ongoing Edo governorship election “from our situation room at the National Headquarters in Abuja.
“Our monitoring indicates early commencement of polls in many polling units, but there are also reports of late commencement in some locations.
“To ensure that no voter is disenfranchised, the Commission wishes to reiterate that, in line with our regulations and guidelines, voting will be extended wherever it commenced late and will continue until the last voter in the queue, who arrived at the polling unit by 2.30 p.m, has voted.
“Accordingly, we have drawn the attention of our office in Edo State to ensure that, where necessary, there is adequate power supply from our backup electric generators in the affected polling units or ward collation centres.”
For the INEC that had come under intense accusation of impartiality, particularly a few days to the conduct of the election, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state Mr Anugbu Onuoha, explained that election is a process and not an event. That process started last year when all the participating 18 political parties held their primaries under INEC’s supervision through the period of the continuous voter registration exercise and more recently the collection of voter cards.
He said, “We conducted training for election officers on how to record election results, the use of BVAS machines, distributed sensitive and non-sensitive materials, which INEC had invited all the parties to see before distribution. We sent materials to our racks close to polling units so that they can be moved to polling units by 8 a.m. We have made boats available for transport to riverine areas and areas that are inaccessible have been provided with motorcycles. We have deployed 4,632 BVAS machines to various local government areas where there are 4,519 polling units. BVAS would be used to accredit voters and upload the results to our IREV unless there are places without a network. Nothing will be manipulated.”
Amos Esele is the Acting Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
