EDO ELECTION: THE DRAMA, SURPRISES OF A POLL 23-09-24
By Sadiq Aminu A pall of uncertainty hung over the nation throughout the weekend, as Nigerians anxiously awaited the result of the governorship poll in Edo State. The country had woken up to learn that there was a delay in the announcement of the results at the state Collation Centre. It was later announced that the process would commence at 10:00 am. This is despite the announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it had posted about 98.21 per cent of the results of the election on its IReV portal as of 4:55 am on Sunday.
The two major political parties in the election, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), were already speculating on who won the election. Videos of celebration in the PDP Situation Room had gone viral, with the party calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to allow alleged manipulation of the result by INEC, with alleged collaboration by the ruling APC. The Director-General of the PDP Campaign Council for the Edo governorship election, Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, was also reported to have led party members on a protest at the INEC head office in Benin City at about 2:27 am on Sunday.
The protesters alleged that the outcome of the poll was being skewed in favour of the APC. Iduoriyekemwen said the PDP was cruising to victory but information available to the party showed that there were plans to release a final result that would not reflect the wishes of the voters. He said: “We have information that the result is being skewed to favour Monday Okpehbolo when it is clear that our candidate is coasting to victory. We will not accept this, we will contest it.”
Many observers condemned the desperation displayed by the PDP when it came on national television to complain about the result of an election that had not been declared by INEC. For instance, a civil society activist, Dr Odiakpo Obire, condemned the PDP for jumping the gun by complaining of attempts to manipulate the outcome of the election, even when collation was yet to commence. He said: “Politicians need to accept the results of elections when it is not in their favour. Sometimes, we over-flog these issues; if the results were to be favourable to the PDP, it would be singing the praise of INEC today. So, it’s a normal thing; they are having a feeler but it might not be right because INEC has not announced the results. Preempting the situation only shows that they are probably scared of the outcome of the election or they have authentic evidence against INEC. It still boils down to waiting till the outcome of the entire process. So, I think the press conference is too early when the result has not officially been announced by INEC.”
Obire who spoke on Arise TV yesterday, said preempting the outcome of the election is an act of desperation. He said: “INEC has the responsibility to declare results, not a governor who is a member of a political party’s campaign council announcing a result that has not been officially declared by the commission. So. It’s an act of desperation and an attempt to preempt the outcome or result of an election which is not acceptable. It is high time politicians started trusting the process. What has been the case over the years is when the result is in their favour, INEC is the bride for that election, but when it goes the other way, it is the worst that ever happened. After voting on Saturday, all the contestants were full of praise for INEC. Indeed, all politicians that were interviewed sang one song: that there is no violence, the process is okay, and everything is going well. Then, all of a sudden, the song is changing because the result has started coming out. I think it is a wrong step for Governor (Ahmadu) Fintiri to start calling out results that have not been announced by the appropriate authority.”
ThisDay and Arise TV Ombudsman Kayode Komolafe said the collation process is a very critical aspect of the electioneering process and that all critical stakeholders ought to wait for it to be completed so that the entire thing would not be declared inconclusive. He said: “This process is governed by the law; there are rules of engagement guiding it and this is known to everybody who is involved in the process, be they candidates or just members of political parties. So, my appeal is that, regardless of how deeply aggrieved anyone may feel, the rules should be complied with. In that same Edo State, an election has been upturned once after a declaration had been made, and we have witnessed this in several other states. Besides, there is no room for presumption here, all stakeholders must wait for INEC to conclude the process. The law says that irrespective of the position INEC holds, you can go to the tribunal, depending on the weight of the evidence you have and challenge it.”
On the relevance of the Edo Resident Electoral Commission (REC), Anugbum Onuoha, being a cousin of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike to the PDP’s suspicion that there are attempts to manipulate the process, Komolafe said it does not matter and that the party can only complain if Onuoha goes against the provisions of the law, adding that all electoral officials in the country have relations after all. He added: “If we have to apply that principle, then nobody is qualified to serve as an electoral officer because we are part of the society. What the PDP should insist on is for INEC to conduct elections according to the rules. If after an election, the party has a strong case, it should go to the tribunal and challenge the outcome.”
Journalist and public affairs analyst Taiwo Olapade said it is wrong for anyone other than the electoral umpire, which is INEC, to announce the results of an election, including local government elections. He said: “I want to see INEC taking this up legally because if it had been someone like me or other citizens that have declared this result, I know what could have happened. But, because Fintiri is a governor, we know he has immunity. Nevertheless, having immunity does not allow him to do something in violation of the law. Sincerely, going into this election, I anticipate litigation. Though the PDP and the APC have candidates in this election, I see it more as a survival of the fittest, particularly between Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Obaseki. In the build-up to this election, they have even spoken more than the two candidates.”
Olapade said INEC created room for this state of affairs by not plugging some of the logistic loopholes noticed in previous elections, such as the late commencement of the election in many polling units. He said: “INEC had enough time; the election ought to have started at 08:00 am and end at 2:00 pm or thereabout. Reports yesterday were that it did not commence until about 10:00 am in some polling units; people came to the polling units as early as 7:00 am and waited for three hours for the process to commence. For three hours, there were no INEC officials in sight in most of the polling units in the early hours of the day and there was no one to explain the reason for the late commencement of the process. This created suspicion in the minds of the people.
“For election results, it is not only the PDP that preempted INEC, the APC not only issued a statement claiming that it has secured victory in 13 local governments but some of its leading chieftains like Godswill Akpabio, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Dapo Abiodun and Lucky Aiyedatiwa also stormed INEC office as Obaseki did. It is a kind of balance of terror and desperation on both sides.”
The Dean of Post-Graduate Studies, Baze University, Abuja, Prof. Abiodun Adeniyi said the PDP press conference was preemptive and capable of causing confusion or disrupting the electioneering process that is still underway. He said: “There are three stages in every election: the pre-election stage, where the political parties and their candidates are active, selling their programmes to the people; the election stage, which is dominated by INEC and we can be critical of their actions but we have to allow them to do their job. The third one is the post-election stage, where the participants can resort to the judiciary if they have reasons to believe that due diligence was not followed. For us to resort to taking the laws into our hands, particularly respectable government officials is a new low that we are arriving at, which is not acceptable.
“Oftentimes, we see this on social media and disregard them but for us now to be having a release of such results by senior government officials, senior citizens and people we are supposed to look up to as mentors that ought to be concerned with leaving good legacies for the sustenance and stabilization of our democratic process shouldn’t be something we should welcome at all. We need patience in all of this; we know the build-up to this election has been very frenetic, considering the very strong characters involved in it. But, no matter the way it ends, we are not supposed to take the laws into our hands… There are lessons to be learnt in every election and from those lessons, we need to be thinking of solutions. The conduct of an election should be a learning curve, towards the evolution of solutions and the deepening of our democracy. The individuals involved should know that they are teachers in the learning curve and should not shirk their responsibilities.”
Like previous elections before it, last Saturday’s election was characterized by a low turnout of voters. Dr Obire said it unfortunate that the country has been experiencing so-called voter apathy during one election cycle after another and has been spending a colossal amount of money because the electoral umpire spends money periodically printing ballot papers and procuring other election materials for some prospective voters that never shows up. He added: “This has to do with the atmosphere surrounding the election. We have about 2.6 million registered voters in Edo State but only about 2.2 million of them have collected their permanent voters card (PVC). So, no matter what, some 70 or 80 per cent of them ought to have turned up to exercise their franchise. But, unfortunately, the actions of the political gladiators before the election were not encouraging. For instance, we saw Edo State’s Governor Godwin Obaseki insisting that the PDP was not going to sign the peace accord for certain reasons. This could send a wrong signal to the electorate because some of them could interpret it to mean that there could be a problem if I step out on the day of the election. This is a way of scaring voters from coming out to vote.
“Secondly, INEC, on their part, does not help matters. For example, there are polling units where elections start as late as 10:00 am. This is not good; even though the commission later extended the voting time to make up for the time lost. Every election is a local thing and prospective voters have other engagements on that day; people leave home as early as 7:00 am to go and vote and have other engagements, such as going to their farms or engaging in other activities after the election, hoping that the election would start at 8:00 am. The way elections are organized by INEC, those interested in participating must wait for several hours to do so. Not everyone would have the patience to put up with that.”
Going by what transpired last Saturday, the 2024 Edo governorship election could be considered peaceful in polling units across the 18 local government areas. Most observers who monitored the process had reported that it was largely peaceful, with no records of serious incidents capable of jeopardising its outcome one way or the other.
Nevertheless, a coalition of civil society organisations, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) said it observed widespread instances of blatant vote-buying and selling across several polling units in the election. A statement by chieftains of the group, Yunusa Z. Ya’u, Mimidoo Achakpa and Franklin Oloniju said: “The Situation Room observers reported widespread instances of blatant vote-buying and selling across several polling units, despite the huge presence of security personnel.”
It said the amount of money offered for votes ranged from N5,000 to N10,000 and that, in some cases, food items like bread and Gala were handed to the electorate. The group added: “The price of votes ranged from N5,000 to N10,000 per voter in several locations, including Polling Units 08 and 09, Ward 2, Owan-East Local Government Area; Polling Unit 02 Ward 2, Etsako-West Local Government Area; and several polling units in Egor, Oredo and Owan-West local governments. “In some cases, voters were also induced with food items such as bread, gala (sausage roll),” it said.
It acknowledged the arrest of two alleged vote-traders at George Idah Primary School, Benin City, Ward 2, Oredo Local Government. The Situation Room commended the peaceful conduct of voters and urged them to remain calm throughout the process. The group is made up of organisations like the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), the CLEEN Foundation, Action Aid Nigeria, the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), YIAGA Africa and TAF Africa.
The police have indicated that vote buying and use of cash and other incriminating items characterized Saturday’s governorship election. Reports said the police arrested two alleged political thugs working for one of the parties contesting with voter’s cards and pre-filled ballot box papers. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Frank Mba, according to reports, said vote buying is one of the most difficult offences to manage, but promised to deal with offenders.
Mba said: “Vote-buying is one of the most difficult offences to police and manage and I am saying this with every sense of honesty. The reason is simple, the bulk of vote-buying and selling that takes place does not take place in the glare of the public, in the glare of the media, in the glare of the law enforcement agents. Sometimes, they take place in the bedrooms of citizens and we don’t have the capacity to police every bedroom, every kitchen, every toilet and every balcony. But we pledge that the ones that happen in the glare of the public, the ones our security network can detect and intercept, we will deal with.”