Twelve days after, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Senator Monday Okpebholo, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state have staged a protest demanding that its candidate should be declared winner of the election.
DAILY POST reports that the protest was led by the state chairman of the party, Tony Aziegbemi, Director General of the Asue-Ogie Campaign Organisation Mathew Iduoriyekemwen, and Deputy Director General, Media and Publicity, Rev. Olu Martins, among others.
DAILY POST recalls that INEC declared APC candidate Senator Monday Okpebholo winner of the election with 291,667 votes as against the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo with 247,274 votes.
The protesters who stormed INEC state headquarters at Ramat Park, Benin City, alleged that the electoral umpire connived with security agencies to steal their mandate and gave it to APC.
The protesters armed with placards of different inscriptions demanded that INEC should return the stolen mandate of Edo people, and announce its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, as the authentic winner of the governorship election.
The protest disrupted vehicular movement for several hours at the Ramat Park axis of the ever-busy Auchi-Benin expressway as hundreds of protesters sang solidarity songs.
Addressing the protesters, Anthony Aziegbemi said the protest was to inform the world that INEC changed the result of the election that was already won by PDP.
He called on INEC to do the needful by immediately declaring the PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, as winner of the election.
He alleged that INEC manipulated results of some of the local governments it announced.
According to him: “We thank you all for coming out today in a journey to reclaim the mandate stolen from us by the police and INEC as they subverted the will of Edo people.
“If we had lost this election in a free and fair contest, we would have congratulated them but because they stole our mandate we can’t congratulate them.
“Go and sleep as we are going to reclaim the mandate stolen from us. We are calling on the judiciary to look at our submission and be truthful in their judgement when the time comes.
“This is Nigeria, and we can’t be robbed of our victory as we are sure of reclaiming our stolen mandate as we will present overwhelming evidence.
“We are sure that we will recover our mandate as preliminary analysis we have done shows that this election was won clearly by Asue Ighodalo and we will present the case to the tribunal.
“We believe that the tribunal is made up of men and women of integrity and they will look at the evidence before them and come to the conclusion that PDP won the election. We are going to the tribunal with an open mind.
“PDP is a very peaceful party as it always preaches peace and all along our protest has been violence-free and it will continue to be so.”
Also speaking, Director General, Asue-Ogie Campaign Organisation, Matthew Idioyekhewen, said PDP won the governorship election, vowing that they would continue the protest.
Idioyekhewen, opined that the election results would either make or mar Nigeria’s democracy.
He called for the disbandment of INEC, alleging that it was part of APC and that they were supported by the Police.
“We would take our case forward, though people don’t believe in the judiciary but we will give them a try, and we will take our case to them and see what they will do, ” he stated.
Earlier, the Deputy Director General of the Asue-Ogie Campaign Organisation, Olu Martins also called for the sack of INEC electoral officers in Egor, Oredo and Ikpoba Okha local government areas.
Martins also vowed that they would continue to protest until the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo is declared winner of the election.
He added that PDP and its leadership in the state would not compromise in recovering their mandate.