The political atmosphere in Edo State became tense Sunday morning, when the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki was walked out of the premises of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benin by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, DIG Frank Mba.
It was gathered that Obaseki who had stormed INEC’s collation centre unannounced around 2 AM, was walked out around 4:10 AM.Obaseki was there to protest anomalies in the collation of results of some local government areas including his Oredo.
He was, however, told that his presence was not needed there.At about 3 AM, a combined team of policemen led by DIG Mba and personnel of the Nigerian Army entered the premises and by 4:10 am, escorted Obaseki out of the premises.
Minutes before Obaseki was led outside by Mba and other policemen, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Secretary, Surajudeen Basiru, told journalists that the governor had no reason to be on the premises.
Basiru said, “He is not a candidate. He has no reason to be here”, describing the governor’s action as an abuse of office.Earlier, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asue Ighodalo was also sent back.Members of the APC led by Monday Okpebholo’s running mate, Honourable Dennis Idahosa, also led protesters to demand the exit of Governor Obaseki from the premises at about 3:30 am on Sunday.
This is as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is mounting pressure on INEC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Anugbum Onuoha, in Edo State to suspend the collation of Saturday’s governorship election results.
“Intelligence available to the PDP indicates that the APC is mounting pressure on the INEC Chairman and Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to suspend the collation process so as to make way for the manipulation of the INEC Portal and replace the real results from the Units with fabricated figures in favour of the APC,” PDP spokesman Debo Ologunagba said in a statement.
The PDP charged the commission to resist “pressure by the APC and ensure that nobody tampers with the results as obtained from the Polling Units”.In a statement on Saturday, INEC also said it received allegations of wrong figures entered into polling unit result sheets in the ongoing election.
The commission, however, vowed to investigate the infractions.“This is the second complaint we have received out of the 4,519 polling units used for the election. The Commission will immediately investigate the matter and deal with any proven infraction,” it wrote.
