Politics
#EdoDecides: Obaseki heading to victory as PDP rejects results
With results from about 16 local governments so far announced by INEC, Godwin Obaseki, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is set to emerge winner of the September 28 gubernatorial election conducted to choose a successor to incumbent governor, Adams Oshiomhole.
In the results released on Thursday, and announced by INEC returning officers for the local governments to the Chief Returning Officer, Professor Kayode Soremekun, APC’s candidate, Obaseki had so far scored a total 306,655.votes to edge out Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the People’s Democratic Party who had so far scored 244,354 votes.(See results)
Before the final results were released, some protesters, apparently sympathetic to PDP, had stormed INEC’s Ikpoba Hill office to demonstrate against perceived manipulation of the electoral process. It took several shots of teargas canisters to disperse the unruly crowd.
Read also: #EdoDecides: PDP raises alarm over APC’s plan to rig over night
The protests were shortly followed by a call from Chief Dan Orbih, PDP Chairman, Edo State, for a total cancellation of the election. He said, “You will recall that our State Publicity Secretary had briefed the press less than 48 hours to the elections on what is playing out now.
“If you go by the results that were announced at the polling units and wards across the state, it shows that PDP would have won by over 30,000 votes.
“What INEC is announcing is clearly different from what we got from our agents and independent observers in the 192 wards and over 2,000 units across the state. We are rejecting these results as they were being announced by INEC and we are coming out early to make this known.”
The PDP stance sets the stage for what might turn out a protracted legal battle to reconstruct the Edo election even as Obaseki and APC celebrate their victory at the polls.
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