Godwin Obaseki and Osagie Ize-Iyamu


John Alechenu, Olusola Fabiyi, Kamarudeen Ogundele,
Toluwani Eniola and Alexander Okere



The Edo State governorship election, held on
Wednesday, appeared to be a tight race between the
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Godwin
Obaseki, and the standard bearer of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.


Early results from some wards in the state, which had
not been authenticated by the Independent National
Electoral Commission, indicated that the two
candidates were running neck and neck in the poll.


The two main parties, however, claimed to have gained
comfortable lead in the election while accusing each
other of planning to rig the poll.

While unconfirmed results showed that the PDP won
seven out of the eight units in Ward 3, Uromi in the Esan
North-East Local Government Area, where a former
chairman of the BoT of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih,
hails from, the APC won one unit.


Also, the APC lost in the polling unit of the National
Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, where
the PDP emerged victorious.


The APC, on its own, won in Ward 7 in the Oredo Local
Government Area of the state.


The APC scored 4,412 votes while the PDP got 4,047
votes.


The governorship candidate of the PDP in the 2012
election in the state, Maj. Gen. Charles Airhiavbere
(retd.), who is now a stalwart of the APC, led the ruling
party to beat the PDP in Unit 18, 19, 20 and 21 of Ward
one in the Oredo LGA.


In Unit 18, PDP got 158 while the APC got 259. In Unit
19, APC scored 146 and PDP polled 85.


In Unit 20, the APC got 259 votes while the PDP polled
208 votes and in Unit 21, the APC scored 128 votes
leaving the PDP with 98 votes.


In Oredo Ward 12, out of the accredited 4,399 voters,
the PDP took the lead with 2,066, leaving the APC with
2,041.


In Oredo Ward 4, out of the total accredited voters of
4,911, the APC scored 3,058 while the PDP polled
1,541.


The national leadership of the PDP alleged on
Wednesday night that the APC was planning to overturn
its alleged victory in the Edo State governorship
election.


The party said the results it received from its agents in
the state indicated that it was leading the APC with a
wide merging in the election.


Spokesperson for the party and member of its National
Caretaker Committee, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, stated this in
a statement in Abuja.


Adeyeye said, “Having received results from our agents
at approximately 1,800 of the 2,627 polling units spread
across the 192 wards in the 18 local government areas
of Edo State, we can confirm that our party has attained
a near unassailable lead in the Edo State governorship
election.


“The results so far confirmed to us that our candidate
has garnered approximately 55 per cent of the total
votes cast by voters.’’

He alleged that the PDP was aware of the alleged
connivance between the state government and a
national commissioner at INEC to rig the election in
favour of the ruling party in the state.



Adeyeye, a former minister of state for works, added,
“We will like to reiterate our earlier note of warning: The
Edo people and our party will resist any attempt to
subvert the collective will of the people as expressed by
their votes today.”
He urged members and supporters of the party in the
state to continue guarding their votes at the ward
collation centres and the local government collation
centres.


“Eternal vigilance is the price we all have to pay for
victory,” he added.
Also in a statement, the state Publicity Secretary of the
PDP, Chris Nehikhare, said it was surprised that INEC
had delayed the announcement of the results from
wards.


He said, “Voting stopped at 2pm and votes were
counted immediately at the unit levels. From results
made available to us, we are in a very comfortable lead.
“We are, however, shocked that up until now, no ward
result has been declared.


‘‘We are aware that the APC and INEC plan to change
the results at the collation centres and we wish to want
that any change of the results will be met with stiff
resistance.’’


But reacting to claims by the PDP, the APC said the
opposition party was being mischievous “as usual”.
The APC National Vice-Chairman (South), Mr. Segun
Oni, said, “The PDP is simply being mischievous.


“From the results I have seen from the field, from where
we are monitoring the elections here in Abuja, the APC
is in a comfortable lead.


“Out of a hundred, the PDP has not won five, even in
units they claim to have won. We are investigating
because the number of voters exceeds the number of
registered voters per unit.”

Also, the state Chairman of the APC, Anselm Ojezua,
dismissed the allegation, describing it as mischievous,
since only INEC had the constitutional power to
determine the winner of the election.


Ojezua said, “The fact that they are actually making
those claims already tells me that there is mischief in
the air because it is traditional that even when you know
what the situation is, you have to wait for INEC to
announce the results.


“If you see the fantastic results that are being posted
from certain locations, you know that they could not
have been credible. Therefore, I think that what they are
doing is just to create more confusion.”

He, however, expressed concern on the announcement
of results from the Ovia North-East Local Government
Area on the Internet.


Ojezua added, “We are concerned about the figure
being circulated on the Internet about the Ovia North-
East. Certainly, we are collating the results and we will
officially respond.’’


Meanwhile, the Assistant Inspector General of Police in
charge of Zone 5, Isaac Eke, described the election as
very peaceful.


Speaking through the Police Public Relations Officer of
Zone 5, Emeka Iheanacho, in an interview with one of
our correspondents, Eke said the election was peaceful.
He said, “The process has been peaceful; there was no
hindrance to voters to exercise their franchise.”


Osunbor hails INEC, security agencies

A former Governor of Edo State, Prof. Oserhemien
Osunbor, commended the security agencies for
maintaining peace and order during the governorship
election.


He also praised the Independent National Electoral
Commission for introducing reforms in to the electoral
process.


Speaking with one of our correspondents after voting in
Iruekpen, Osunbor, a chieftain of the APC, said the
security situation was encouraging.
“The security agencies have done well to ensure peace
and order.


“The people are orderly. The electoral process is getting
better; maybe people are now used to the system. I’m
satisfied. I hope the entire system remains so till the
end,” he said.


INEC also denied report of ballot box snatching and
gunshots in some polling centres during the Wednesday
election.


Oshiomhole had earlier said he received a report that
some thugs allegedly snatched ballot boxes at Opoji in
the Esan North-East Local Government Area during the
election.


Oshiomhole also alleged that the suspected snatchers
shot repeatedly before taking away the ballot boxes.
Meanwhile, INEC Deputy Director of Voter Education
and Publicity, Mr Nick Dazang, said in an interview with
the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday:


“I just called Mr. Solomon Soyebi, who is the National
Commissioner supervising the election, and he has
denied the allegation of gunshots and ballot box
snatching at Opoji in the Esan North-East Local
Government Area of the state,” Dazang said.


On the reported accident involving a youth corps
member serving with INEC, Dazang said he had not
heard “any such sad news”, but promised to get back to
NAN “if there is anything like that’’.


But INEC Electoral Officer in the Esan West Local
Government Area of the state, Mr. Lebari Nduh,
confirmed that hoodlums snatched a ballot box in Ward
7 Unit 11 during voting.


The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Edo State, Mr.
Sam Olumekun, said collation of results would begin on
Thursday.



Source - http://punchng.com/edo-election-ize-iyamu-obaseki-close-race/

Hnnn we dey wait

One of these thieves will win