By Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The Edo State Civil Society Organizations (EDOCSO), has appealed to political parties that are aggrieved with the outcome of the just concluded Edo State governorship election to seek redress in court rather than resorting to self-help.
The group disclosed this in Benin while speaking on the aftermath of the Edo 2024 governorship election.
Addressing Journalists during the press briefing, the Coordinator General of the group, Comrade Omobude Agho, said it was observed in most of the polling units across the state, apart from the rains in the earlier hours of the election day that could play a significant role too, a large percentage of citizens which could be estimated to be up to 30 percent of voting class Nigerians have developed cold feet which is evident in the number of accredited number of voters of that day against the number of last set of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected alone before this election.
He said it could also be ascribed to total lack of confidence in our electoral processes, the magical malfunctioning of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in distorting voting figures after citizens have put in so much efforts, time and personal resources, and maybe fear of the huge number of security personnel deployed for the election.
Comrade Agho said this aspect of our democratic electioneering evolution is becoming more worrisome by every election and may get far worse in the coming days where citizens will completely abandon their PVCs and leave the voting to be done by INEC and our security agencies, if not checked now and dealt with accordingly.
Agho while commending the peaceful conduct of the governorship election in the state, faulted the major political parties for engaging in votes buying which has undermined the electoral process.
“The polls were opened without violence as voters took their turns to vote.
“However, in several units, vote buying and selling became a common sight, security personnel didn’t act in enforcing the law against such an act.
“Votes were freely sold and bought by the two major political parties between the sum of N10,000 and N20,000 or even far less depending on the location or environment.
“All these were carried out in a very agreeable and peaceful atmosphere. In some cases, some voters returned home without casting their votes when they couldn’t get a satisfactory bargain from the buying of the votes”, Agho added.
He however faulted the way and manner security agencies allegedly took materials away from their collation centres without allowing the various party agents to go in with them.
“It should be noted that, at the close of polls in some voting centres like Garrick Memorial School on Ekehuan road in Oredo and Western Boys high School in Ikpoba Okha, security agencies forcefully moved INEC officials and materials to INEC headquarters for collation which is against the usual process, whereas in the proper order, collated results are moved from units to local government collation centre from where it will be moved to INEC headquarters for final collation and announcement.
“While these collation abnormalities were going on, over 70% of results from polling units have already been received and registered in the INEC IREV portal by officials of INEC.
“It was also shocking to observe that party agents and accredited observers were barred from entering the INEC headquarters to monitor the materials that were brought in by the heavily armed soldiers and other security agencies who had barricaded the entire area, which event raised protests around INEC headquarters.
“This action of the security agencies and INEC gives room for suspicion, compromise and partisanship that makes the election not to pass the integrity test and leaves a taste in posterity