The government of Edo State, on Tuesday, advised aggrieved parties in the Esan North-east Council By-election to follow due process and seek redress in court.
The State government expressed satisfaction with the election results and insisted that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was trying to muddle up the election process.
Speaking on Channels Television breakfast programme, ‘Sunrise Daily’, the Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, alleged that the PDP arrested electoral officers when they realised they were losing to make the process cumbersome and discredit the outcome of the election.
“Over 25 persons where put behind bars,” he said, with the help of “the ‘imported’ police officers from Lagos and Abuja.
“One commander of the Mobile Police in Lagos, Patrick Ejededawe, an indigene of Uromi, came with some policemen to supervise elections in Uromi,” he explained.
Considering the fact that the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees is from the Esan North local council, tempers will naturally be high because they wouldn’t want him to lose a local government election, he stated.
He said that the election results were collated at the designated centres contrary to the claims of the PDP.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, Chairmanship candidate, Sam Oboh, was declared winner of the by-election, held on 22 October with 12, 67 votes.
The leadership of the state is of the APC.
