In the aftermath of the Edo governorship election, where Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the election observer group Yiaga Africa has called for an investigation into INEC officials allegedly involved in result manipulation and other irregularities.
This call was made in a post-election statement signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo elections, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa. The statement highlighted inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC, based on reports from sampled polling units.
Yiaga Africa stated that it can only verify election outcomes if they fall within its estimated margins; if the official results do not align with these margins, manipulation may have occurred. According to INEC, the APC received 51.1% of the votes, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 43.3%, and the Labour Party 4.0%. However, statistical analysis from 287 out of 300 sampled polling units (96%) showed discrepancies in the results.
Specific examples included official results for APC in Oredo and Egor local government areas (LGAs) falling outside the predicted estimates, as well as discrepancies for PDP in Esan West LGA and LP in Oredo LGA. These inconsistencies suggested alterations at the collation level, raising concerns about the integrity of the results.
Yiaga Africa condemned the actions of biased INEC officials and security personnel who interfered with the collation process. They noted that disruptions in LGAs like Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo facilitated opportunities for election manipulation, calling into question the credibility of the results collation process.