The Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State Osagie Ize-Iyamu, in the just concluded Edo State governorship election and leaders of the party have submitted a petition to the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal.
They are challenging the result of the polls.
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Godwin Obaseki was declared winner of the election by the electoral commission.
But Mr Ize-Iyamu, who was flanked by other leaders of the party at the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal premises in Benin City on Wednesday evening, said they decided to challenge the result of the election in keeping with the promise they made to their supporters that they would defend the votes cast for them
Mr Ize-Iyamu and the Chairman of the Party in the State, Mr Dan Orbih, said they were confident that they would be declared winner at the conclusion of the case.
On the day of the election, the PDP claimed there was a plan by the electoral body and incumbent Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to rig the election at the collation centre.
The opposition party said that the delay by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to begin ward results announcement at the collation centre was a sign of the plan.
Governor Oshiomhole is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A statement by the spokesman for the party in Edo State, Chris Nehikhare, pointed out that voting stopped at 2:00pm and votes were counted immediately at the unit levels.
he further claimed that his party was in a comfortable lead with some of the results declared at the wards.
But the the INEC in an after-election statement said that the September 28 election was free and fair.
The INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Solomon Soyebi, told Channels Television in Kaduna that the election was not flawed with irregularities as being alleged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
He debunked claims by the PDP that the commission deliberately delayed result of the election from the 18 Local Government Councils in Edo state in order to favour the ruling APC in the state.
He further explained that INEC deployed an electronic device during the election that tracked the collation of results from the polling units up to the last collation centre, and therefore checkmated any form of rigging.
Expressions Of Dissatisfaction
Some observer groups have picked holes in the governorship election.
One of the groups, Election Monitor, is asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to pay attention to calls for the cancellation of the governorship election in Edo State.
The call is on grounds that widespread public outcry signifies dissatisfaction that should not be ignored.
Presenting the group’s election observation report to a press conference in Abuja on Friday, the National coordinator, Abiodun Ajijola, said the election had a high case level of vote buying and over-voting across the polling stations especially in Esako Local Government Area.
He says such acts give credence to such expressions of dissatisfaction.
Mr Ajijola also noted that while the election could be said to have been conducted effectively with regards to operation and conduct, the group observed unacceptable delay in collation of results which the electoral commission ought to address.
