The political climate in Edo State intensified early Sunday morning when Governor Godwin Obaseki was asked to leave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin by Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Frank Mba.
According to Channels Television, Obaseki arrived unannounced at INEC’s collation center around 2 AM and was escorted out at approximately 4:10 AM.
He was there to protest alleged irregularities in the collation of results from several local government areas, including Oredo, but was informed that his presence was unnecessary.
Around 3 AM, a security team led by DIG Mba, along with personnel from the Nigerian Army, entered the premises, and by 4:10 AM, they escorted Obaseki out.
Just before this, APC National Secretary Surajudeen Basiru told reporters that the governor had no reason to be at the collation center, stating, “He is not a candidate. He has no reason to be here,” and criticized Obaseki’s actions as an abuse of office.
Earlier, the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, had also been sent away. Additionally, APC members, led by Monday Okpebholo’s running mate, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, staged a protest around 3:30 AM demanding the governor’s exit.
Meanwhile, the PDP has alleged that the APC is exerting pressure on INEC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Anugbum Onuoha, to suspend the collation of Saturday’s governorship election results.
“Intelligence available to the PDP indicates that the APC is mounting pressure on the INEC Chairman and Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to suspend the collation process so as to make way for the manipulation of the INEC Portal and replace the real results from the Units with fabricated figures in favour of the APC,” PDP spokesman Debo Ologunagba said in a statement.
The PDP charged the commission to resist “pressure by the APC and ensure that nobody tampers with the results as obtained from the Polling Units”.
In a statement on Saturday, INEC announced that it had received allegations regarding incorrect figures recorded on the polling unit result sheets during the ongoing election.