Civil society organization Yiaga Africa has criticized the outcome of the Edo State governorship election held on Saturday, stating that the election failed to meet the standards of integrity.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director, the group argued that the election lacked transparency in the results collation process, which led to the manipulation of results.
“While key stages such as accreditation, voting, counting, and recording of results at the polling units largely adhered to procedures, the collation process was compromised due to the actions of biased INEC officials, who collaborated with other actors,” the statement read. “This manipulation severely undermined the integrity of the election.”
Yiaga Africa based its conclusions on observations from its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology. The group deployed 300 stationary and 25 roving observers, who monitored polling units across all 18 local government areas (LGAs) of the state.
INEC declared Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election, with 291,667 votes. He defeated Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 247,274 votes, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party, who finished a distant third with 22,763 votes.
In its statement, Yiaga Africa highlighted incidents of result manipulation and disruptions during the collation process in several LGAs, including Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo. The group noted that these incidents involved intimidation of INEC officials, observers, and party agents, and compromised the collation of results.
“Yiaga Africa’s estimates are based on official results announced at the polling unit level from a representative random sample of polling units. As stated in our pre-election report, we will assess the integrity of election day processes, such as accreditation, voting, counting, and collation, to determine whether the 2024 Edo governorship election meets the electoral integrity standard,” the group said.
The group acknowledged that INEC generally followed its guidelines during the accreditation and voting processes, and that the BVAS machines functioned effectively, allowing all voters in line by 2:30 pm to cast their ballots, despite some late openings of polling stations. Additionally, polling officials uploaded results to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal in a timely manner.
However, Yiaga Africa pointed out that results manipulation during the ward and LGA collation stages, as well as disruptions in several LGAs, raised serious concerns about the credibility of the election.
Citing inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC, particularly in Oredo, Egor, and Esan West LGAs, Yiaga Africa noted that the figures for the APC, PDP, and Labour Party fell outside the PRVT estimate ranges. These disparities indicated manipulation during the collation process, the group claimed.
“The inconsistencies between INEC’s official results and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the collation level. We strongly condemn the actions of biased INEC officials and some security personnel who interfered with the collation process,” the statement read.
Nevertheless, Yiaga Africa found that INEC’s figures for voter turnout and rejected ballots were consistent with its PRVT estimates. According to the group, voter turnout ranged between 20.9% and 24.1% (22.5% ± 1.6%), closely aligning with INEC’s official figure of 22.4%. Similarly, rejected ballots were estimated to fall between 2.2% and 3.2% (2.7% ± 0.5%), matching INEC’s report.