The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Saturday’s Edo State governorship election, Asue Ighodalo has raised concerns over alleged irregularities during the voting process, described the exercise as potentially the worst in Nigeria’s history.
He highlighted the development as one indicating serious issues that could undermine the legitimacy of the election.
Speaking during during a press conference at the PDP Situation Room in Benin City, the Edo State capital on Sunday, Ighodalo claimed that his party’s agents were not allowed into the Collation Centre, a move he said spells bad for the country’s democracy.
“From our perspective, the way these elections are going, they’re probably going to be the worst elections in the history of this country,” Ighodalo said.
Speaking further, the PDP candidate added, “We have information for instance, where we have over 20 polling units where the accredited voters are less than the total votes which is not possible. We have over 20 polling units from the results that were announced yesterday (Saturday) where from their accredited voters, the total votes that they’ve now announced are more than the accredited voters.”
Ighodalo cited some polling units where the alleged irregularities took place, describing it as “totally unacceptable”.
“There’s something definitely going wrong. There’s a result writing scheme going on and it’s totally unacceptable.
“This process is unacceptable and then they’re trying to disenfranchise our Collation Agents,” Ighodalo said.
He added, “Like His Excellency, Umaru Fintiri who leads the party’s campaign organisation for the election read, at every point, you find APC and their thugs supported by people dressed as security agents going to shoot at polling agents and disrupt processes.
“This is not acceptable in the 21st century. Definitely not in Nigeria. I think we’ve gone way past this.”
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