PDP officially rejects Edo State governorship election results promising legal action

NIGERIA'S main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has officially rejected the Edo State governorship election results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) which declared the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) the winners.

Yesterday, Inec announced that Senator Monday Okpebholo of the APC won Saturday's elections with 291,667 votes, defeating the PDP’s Asue Ighodalo, who garnered 247,274 votes and the Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata, who came in third with 22,763 votes. According to official results released by Inec, out of the 18 local government areas in the state, the APC won 10, while the PDP secured 8 and the Labour Party none.

However, the PDP has refused to accept the result and has vowed to take the matter to court with acting party chairman Umar Damagum calling on concerned Nigerians to support the party’s rejection of the election results. Mr Damagum claimed that the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, was the legitimate winner of the poll and alleged that the election did not meet the necessary democratic standards.

Mr Damagum added: “The PDP therefore unequivocally rejects the final result of the Edo State governorship election as declared by Inec as it did not meet the minimum standard for democracy, having not reflected the expressed will and aspiration of the people in line with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Inec guidelines for state governorship elections. The PDP demands that Inec within the time stipulated by Section 65 of the Electoral Act, 2022 review the Edo State governorship election and announce results only as obtained from the genuine votes cast at the polling units.

“From unfolding political events in the country, the latest being the brazen rigging of the Saturday, September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election by the APC in connivance with government-controlled agencies, it is clear that our democracy is under threat. As you know and widely reported in all segments of the media, the 2024 Edo State governorship election was barefacedly compromised by the APC in collusion with unpatriotic security operatives and heavily procured officials of the Inec, who viciously trampled on the votes of the people in defiance of the law and total disregard to the sovereign will of the people of Edo State.

“Nigerians and the world watched in horror as the APC-compromised security operatives and thugs unleashed terror, harassed, arrested and detained PDP members and supporters, foisted siege mentality on the people, paved the way for APC agents and procured Inec officials to manipulate the ballot process, substitute genuine results from the polling units with fictitious figures and transferred the victory clearly won by our candidate, Asue Ighodalo to the defeated APC candidate, Monday Okpebholo. As Nigerians already know, despite the violence, intimidation and manipulations by the APC, results obtained from the polling units show that our candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo clearly won the election before the figures were altered at the state collation exercise in favour of the defeated APC candidate.

“The PDP calls on all Nigerians and lovers of democracy all over the world to stand up in solidarity with the people of Edo State in rejecting this assault on the democratic rights of the people as witnessed in the governorship election. In this election, we shall once again test the level of preparedness of the judiciary to deliver justice where it is needed.

"Therefore, we cannot rule out a situation where justice will be dispensed but the most important thing is that we shall subject them to greater scrutiny in the eyes of Nigerians. They say that when the judicial system does not work, then you don’t have a country. I don’t know if we will still have a country.”