By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the wrongful declaration of the the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asue Ighodalo as winner of the just concluded Edo State governorship will be another opportunity to test ability of the judiciary to dispense justice.
National Chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum in a Press Conference on Monday which held at the party’s National Secretariat said that the result that was declared by the Commission was different from what was uploaded at the INEC iRev.
He said that the result that the security agencies went about detaining PDP members while the APC had a field day in manipulating election results.
Damagum said that he is hopeful that the judiciary will redeem its image by dispensing justice on the Edo state governorship election otherwise, the existence of the country will be under serious threat. He further demanded that the electoral umpire should review the declared results evoking the powers confered on them by the electoral act.
He said, “In this election, we shall still put to test once again the level of the preparedness of the judiciary to do justice where it is required. So we cannot overrule a situation whereby justice will be dispensed, but the most important thing is that we shall put them to more scrutiny before the eyes on Nigerians because they say that when the judicial system does now work, then you don’t have a country. I don’t know if we will still have a country.
“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”.
The PDP boss lamented that the election failed to meet the minimum standards for an election.
“Nigerians and the world watched in horror as the APC-compromised security operatives and thugs unleashed terror, harass, arrest and detain PDP members and supporters, foisted siege mentality on the people and 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 people of Edo State clearly chose Dr. Asue Ighodalo as the next Governor of their State and only their Will as expressed at the Polling Units must be allowed to stand”.
Damagum said that the party raised several red flags before the election which was ignored.
“You may recall that the PDP had on several occasions alerted of this sinister plot by the APC to subvert the election, the roles allegedly being played by AIG Zone 7, Benneth Igwe and Edo State Commissioner of Police CP Nemo Edwin-Iwo and the appointment of a known APC apologist and supporter, Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, as the Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).
“Several demands by our party for the redeployment of these officials as well as the release of all arrested PDP members and supporters fell on deaf ears and tend to validate PDP’s suspicion of a top-level conspiracy to rig the Edo State governorship election.
“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 election”.
The party called 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 Edo State Governorship election.
