The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to review the collated results for the Edo governorship election before the final announcement.
Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi, speaking to the press in Benin, claimed discrepancies between the entries made by electoral officers and the actual results uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing (IREV) portal. He alleged that the results had been inflated in favor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by deducting votes from the PDP.
Aziegbemi provided examples from Akoko-Edo, where the APC reportedly received 25,010 votes according to local government results, but only 18,620 votes were reflected on the IREV. In contrast, the PDP’s results showed 15,865 votes on the EC8C compared to 18,620 on the IREV.
In specific wards, he highlighted significant discrepancies, including:
- Ward 9, Akoko-Edo LGA: APC was recorded with 2,350 votes on the IREV but had 9,104 votes on the EC8C. The PDP had 1,359 votes recorded on the IREV versus 633 on the EC8C.
- Ward 6, Akoko-Edo: Results were returned for polling units where elections did not occur.
In Egor, he noted similar issues, with the APC’s votes on the IREV at 10,972 but 16,760 on the EC8C, while the PDP’s counts showed 14,485 on the IREV compared to 14,658 on the EC8C.
Aziegbemi emphasized that the collation in Egor was improperly conducted at the INEC state headquarters instead of the designated local government center, denying PDP agents access to the process.
He condemned these irregularities as scandalous and demanded immediate re-collation of the actual results from the affected polling units.