The governor said it took a meeting with the DIG Frank Mbah before INEC communicated what was happening to the public.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has explained the circumstances surrounding his visit to the head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
He criticized INEC for lacking transparency in election collation and denying PDP agents access.
Obaseki said on Sunday, “I got a report that collation was supposed to be moved to the INEC head office, I also got report that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation process. At that point, I called the REC to ask what was going on, there was no response.”
The governor said it took a meeting with the DIG Frank Mbah before INEC communicated what was happening to the public.
He said, “I went to INEC office, to meet with the REC to understand the process and steps taken to address the issues. When I got there at around 2 am, I didn’t see any collation going on and the REC refused to come out to explain what the situation was.
“Subsequently, DIG Frank Mbah came out and had a meeting with me, where I explained to him, if INEC was postponing the collation, they should inform agents and citizens on what is next.
“At about 3 am, there was no information from INEC as to what was going on or not.
“It was after my meeting with Mr Frank Mbah that INEC now released a statement at about 5 am informing the public that collation will start at about 10 am this morning.”
“So my going there was to obtain information from INEC as to what was going on because they refused to give information as to what was going on in my domain,” he said.
There have been controversies surrounding the conduct of the election with allegations of bias and vote-buying trailing the process.
The Peoples Democratic Party has also accused INEC and the police of bias in the conduct of the election, an allegation that has been denied by both parties.
