By Chesa Chesa
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has pooh-poohed the report of election observer, Yiaga Africa, alleging manipulation of results in last weekend’s Edo governorship election as “a travesty, replete with methodological flaws, politicized observations, inconsistencies, inaccuracies”, which have called the organization’s credibility into question.
The APC is celebrating the result of the poll which was won by its candidate, Monday Okpebholo, while other political parties are lamenting the process and outcome.
A statement issued by APC on Tuesday, said Yiaga Africa, was overreaching its election observer mission to second-guess the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the result of the election.
Yiaga Africa is not, and must desist from constituting itself into, a parallel agency for the declaration of election result, said the statement issued by APC spokesman, Felix Morka.
“Alleging that results were manipulated without hard facts and figures but based on some statistical guess work is a clear disservice to the electoral process. Yiaga Africa’s report is a travesty, replete with methodological flaws, politicized observations, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and called its credibility into question.
“Election observer missions are not election management agencies and cannot usurp INEC’s statutory authority as the sole election management body in Nigeria. Doing so would constitute a clear breach of the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“While election observer missions, like Yiaga Africa, are at liberty to share their observations about the election process with INEC and the general public, however, declaring election result or second guessing result declared by INEC in performance of its statutory duties, falls beyond their observation mandate.
“Declaring or second-guessing the Edo state gubernatorial result based on unsubstantiated, unverified, highly questionable statistical parameters created by Yiaga Africa for Yiaga Africa is designed to create unnecessary confusion and the appearance of a parallel election process”, Morka said.
He urged Yiaga Africa to refrain from “enlisting itself in the season’s annals of infamy, alongside the likes of Governor Godwin Obaseki and his illegal and sinister midnight invasion of INEC’s offices, and Governor Ahmadu Fintiri’s illegal declaration of bogus election result”.
