22nd September, 2024
By Jethro Ibileke
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s gubernatorial election Situation Room has bemoaned the alleged “illegal interruption of collation” of the election, describing it as “totally unacceptable”.
The PDP governorship election campaign chairman and governor of Adamawa state, Umaru Fintiri, stated this Sunday morning while giving an update on the election.
Also present at the briefing were Governors Sheriff Oborevwori, Keffas Agbu and Godwin Obaseki of Delta, Taraba and Edo State, respectively.
The Situation Room alleged that “the collation process was violently interrupted in several local government areas across the State.”
Fintiri said:
“In Edo South, local government collation processes were stopped in Oredo, Ikpoba-Okha, and Egor and moved illegally to the State Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benin on the instructions of an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) in complete breach of the statutory collation process.
“Affected Party Agents and representatives were then ordered to converge on the INEC State Headquarters in Aduwawa, Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area for the completion of the collation exercise.
“Upon arrival, agents of the PDP were not allowed into INEC State Office for the exercise. On the other hand, agents of the APC were allowed unfettered access to the INEC premises to participate in the collation process.
“This was also in breach of the Electoral Act section on neutrality as well as the rules and regulations published for these elections.”
The PDP Situation Room added that “at about 9 pm senior party officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) accompanied by the police stormed the Etsako West Local Government collation centre and began shooting indiscriminately.
“As a result of the attack the council Vice Chairman, Honorable Benji Ojetu was left in critical condition from a shooting injury. Because of this assault, the expected results from Wards 7 and 11 were not delivered.”
The PDP election Situation Room therefore demanded a restoration of the collation process under the Electoral Act and the INEC rules and regulations for this election.
It warned that any other “illegal and unlawful actions going forward will be a violation of the will of the people and an abuse of the Electoral Act 2022.”
