The Chairman of the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tony Aziegbemi, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to conduct an immediate re-collation and recompilation of the actual results from the Edo governorship election.
Aziegbemi’s appeal emphasized the need for a comprehensive review of the collated results before any final announcement is made, to ensure transparency and accuracy in the electoral process.
Speaking to journalists in Benin City, on Sunday, Aziegbemi raised concerns over discrepancies between the figures entered by electoral officers and the actual results uploaded on INEC’s Results Viewing Portal (IREV) from polling units across the state.
He claimed that the results had been tampered with to favour the All Progressives Congress (APC), alleging that votes had been inflated for APC and reduced for PDP in certain areas.
Aziegbemi cited Akoko-Edo as one of the key locations where irregularities were noted.
According to him, the results uploaded to IREV indicated that APC secured 25,010 votes, but the figure declared by the local government returning officer on the EC8C result sheet was significantly higher at 34,847.
“While for the PDP, the results uploaded on the IREV is 18,620 but 15,865 was recorded on the EC8C declared by the returning officer.
“It would interest you to know that in ward 9, Akoko Edo LGA, from the 36 polling units results uploaded on the IREV, the total votes obtained by APC is 2,350 while 9,104 was entered into the EC8C result for APC.
“The total votes for PDP is 1,359 while 633 was entered in the EC8C.
“Also, in Ward six Akoko Edo, where elections did not hold in units 12, 17, 15, 18, 14 and 16, results were returned for the said polling units in the ward result sheet (EC8C),” Aziegbemi noted.
Aziegbemi also raised concerns over irregularities in Egor Local Government Area. He revealed that IREV showed APC securing 10,972 votes, but the figure was inflated to 16,760 in the EC8C declaration.
He further alleged that the collation for Egor LGA was moved from the designated collation center to the INEC state headquarters, where PDP agents were denied access to the process.
“While for the PDP, the results uploaded on the IREV is 14,485 but 14,658 was returned on the EC8C declared by the local government returning officer.
“It would interest you to note that the collation of Egor was not done at the designated LGA centre but was moved to the INEC state headquarters and the PDP agent was not allowed access to be part of the exercise,” he added.
Etsako West was also mentioned as an area with significant discrepancies between IREV-uploaded results and those declared on the EC8C.
He said: “The above highlighted irregularities which are very apparent are extremely scandalous and a brazen attempt to steal the mandate of the PDP.
“We, therefore, demand the immediate re-collation and recompilation of the actual results for the various polling units in the above highlighted local government areas.
“In compliance with the INEC guidelines and regulations, which mandates that votes from various units and wards be properly collated.”
Aziegbemi called for transparency and urged INEC to ensure that the will of the people is upheld.
