Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Campaign Council and Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has said that there were suppression of votes in three key local government areas in the state.
He said the three local government areas have high voting population in the state.
Fintiri, who spoke at a press conference at the Situation room of the PDP in Benin City, listed the affected local government where votes were allegedly surpressed to include Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba/Okha local government areas.
This is even as INEC has announced result in Egor local government area and fixed 5pm today for the announcement of results in Ikpoba-Okha and Oredo.
But the Adamawa Governor said collation processes in the three local governments were violently disrupted.
He alleged that agents of the PDP agents were barred from entering the collation centre
Fintiri said an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of the Police stopped the collation of results in the affected local government areas and ordered the movement of all the results to the INEC headquarters in Benin City.
According to him, “The collation process was violently interrupted in several local government areas across the State. 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 into 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
“As a result of the attack the council Vice Chairman, Honourable 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”
“At the INEC state office a 2km-long garrison barricade was created by the Police to cordon-off access, thereby restricting movement in the area.
Finitri called for “the restoration of the collation process in accordance with the Electoral Act and the INEC rules and regulation for this election.
“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”.
