Few hours after INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, declared Godwin Obaseki of the APC as the winner of the Edo State governorship election, the candidate of the PDP, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has reacted to the news.
According to the result announced by Prof. Soremekun, Obaseki secured a total of 319,483 votes while Ize-Iyamu polled 253,173, losing by 66,310 votes.
In his reaction, Ize-Iyamu rejected the result of the guber poll, describing it as predetermined.
The PDP candidate said that the result of the election held across the 18 local government areas did not reflect what was collated by agents of the party and independent observers.
He also alleged that there were irregularities during the exercise, adding that the a plan was allegedly orchestrated to ensure that the PDP lost the election and relevant evidence to back its claims.
According to him, before the earlier scheduled date of the election, serial numbers of result sheets were allegedly released to parties on September 8, adding that information was used to write fake results.
Ize-Iyamu said that the results announced by the presiding officers at different polling units allegedly revealed that the PDP was ahead of the ruling APC by a minimum of 30,000.
Ize-Iyamu explained, “The delay in announcing the official result by INEC was clearly pre-determined and designed to announce fabricated results that are completely at variance with what happened at the units.
“To show that the results were predetermined, if you look at the result, it does not even reflect the huge turnout they (APC) even attested to. Even their national chairman commended the huge turnout.”
He continued, “The result was written without taking into cognizance the huge turnout. We have told our agents to bring out their results; we do not want to rely on the messages sent to us.
“In the next three or four days, we shall have the complete record of the results. I can, however, tell you that from our findings, a lot of manipulation took place.
“At Ward 2 in George Idah Primary School when the collation was ongoing, it is on record that one (first name withheld) Eriyo forcefully entered the place and went away with INEC materials including results collated from the wards. He was not declared wanted and nobody has arrested him.”
