The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at exactly 9.28 pm on Sunday, declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the Edo State 2024 governorship election.
He polled 291,667 votes to beat his closest rival, Dr Asue Ighodalo, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who scored 247,655 votes.
Meanwhile, Okpebholo after being declared winner of the election, promised to develop Edo State, adding that the people had elected the best person for the job and should expect the best from him.
He said: “Edo people have elected the right person for the job. A new Edo is rising. I am here to develop Edo State, I want to transform Edo the way it should be. I want to tell you that I will start from where Adams Oshiomhole stopped. Edo will receive a new transformation and by the grace of God, Edo will stand firm.”
How Okpebholo defeated Ighodalo with 44,012 votes
To emerge victorious, Okpebholo won 11 of the 18 local councils of the state but one of the three senatorial districts. He was dominant in Edo North where Senator Adams Oshiomhole hails from but lost his Edo Central and Edo South narrowly to Ighodalo, who is also from Edo Central.
In Edo North, the APC candidate polled 130,684 votes compared to PDP’s 76,959 votes and LP’s 5,987.
In Edo Central it was APC (48,895); PDP (54,813) and LP (1,546). And in Edo South, it was Okpebholo (112,088 votes); Ighodalo (115,502) and Akpata (15,230).
The 11 LGAs that Okpebholo won including Governor Godwin Obaseki’s Orhionmwon are Etsako West, Etsako East, Akofo Edo, Owan East, Owan West, Etsako Central, Esan West, Esan North-East, Esan central, Egor, and Oredo.
Ighodalo prevailed in seven LGAs, namely Esan North-East, Esan South-East, Igueben, Ovia North-East, Ovia South-West, Uhunwonde and Ikpoba-Okha.
Collation disruptions affect result credibility – CSOs
Some accredited civil society organizations monitoring the election, yesterday, expressed concern over transparency in the collation of the poll results.
The concerns were contained in a statement jointly signed by Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, Yiaga Africa, Kimpact Development Initiative, Nigerian Women Trust Fund, ElectHER, TAF Africa, and the Centre For Democracy & Development, CDD West-Africa.
The statement read: “We, the undersigned accredited civil society organizations observing the 2024 Edo governorship elections, express concern over the transparency of the collation of the election results.
“Reports of disruptions at ward and local government collation centres in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials and attempts to collate results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, raise significant concerns about the credibility of the results collation process.
“We acknowledge INEC’s recent statement recognizing reports of result mutilation and its
commitment to investigate and remedy any proven violations.
“In view of this, we urge INEC to invoke its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 to review any declarations and returns where results were not declared voluntarily or
violated provisions of the electoral act and INEC regulations and guidelines.”
The statement also called on security agencies not to interfere with the process, “We also call on security agencies to refrain from interference in the collation process and to ensure that accredited party agents, the media, and election observers are granted full access to collation centres.
“We wish to emphasize that the role of security agencies in the election is to safeguard the process and not to create a situation that will undermine the transparency of the process and thus impact negatively on the credibility of the outcome of the election.”
*Additional report from vanguard newspaper
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