Godwin Obaseki stated that he visited the State Collation Centre to gather first-hand information about the ongoing collation process.
The Edo State Governor had arrived at the INEC office in Benin City early in the day to observe the situation.
After leaving the collation centre, Obaseki explained that his visit was prompted by unsuccessful efforts to contact the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Edo State, Anugbum Onuoha.
“At about 1:00 am, I got the report that the coalition was supposed to have been moved to the INEC head office. I also got reports from our agents that PPP agents were not allowed into the coalition process. At that point in time, I called the REC to find an explanation as to what was going on. There was no response,” he said during a Sunday briefing by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign organisation for the Edo governorship election.
“I then went to INEC to seek to meet with the REC to try and understand what steps the INEC was taking to continue the process of collation. When I got in there at about 2:00 am, I did not see any coalition taking place and the REC refused to come out to explain what the situation was.
“Subsequently, the DIG Police Frank Mba came in and had a meeting with me where I explained that if INEC was postponing or stopped the collation process, then as part of their rules, they should inform the public as to what next
“As of 3:00 a.m., there was no information from INEC as to what was going to what was going on or what was going to happen next. It was subsequently after my insistence and meeting with Mr Frank Mba that INEC now released a statement at about 5:00a.m this morning informing the public that the collation process would start at 10 a.m. this morning.
“So, my go in there was essentially to obtain information from INEC because they had refused to put any information in the public domain as to what was going to happen with the collation process.”