Despite the controversies that greeted the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, a new governor will be inaugurated on November 12 to replace the incumbent, Godwin Obaseki, whose second and final tenure comes to an end with the swearing-in of the new governor.
A fresh political and administrative dispensation will then begin with Monday Okpebholo, 53, as the governor. Okpebholo, a serving Nigerian senator and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared winner by the state Returning Officer, Prof. Faruk Adamu Kuta, the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Minna. Okpebholo defeated Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and candidate of 16 other political parties to win the highly contested and controversial election.
Okpebholo won 291,667 votes against Ighodalo’s 247,274 votes. Both Okpebholo and Ighodalo hail from Esan Central Senatorial Zone, which had not produced the governor since 2008 when Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, was removed by the court unceremoniously.
Former President of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Olumide Akpata, who flew the flag of the Labour Party came third in the election where there was only one female contestant, Perpetual Key. No woman has ever been governor of Edo State since 1991 when the state was created or even in the old Bendel State created in 1963 as Midwest Region. The state has also not had a female deputy governor.
Though the election was largely peaceful, turnout was generally low, rainfall disrupted the process in a lot of places, especially in Edo South and Edo Central senatorial zones. Just about one quarter of the 2.2 million voters that collected their permanent voters’ cards voted in the election. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was able to upload up to 98 percent of the results from the polling units by 2am on the Sunday following the election on Saturday.
A major downside of the election was the role vote buying played. In virtually all parts of the state, journalists and election monitors reported that party agents openly offered money to voters to vote their candidates. A few of such vote buyers were caught on camera and arrested by security agents like in Egor Local Government Area, where a vote buyer was seen being taken away by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
When the results started tumbling out of the collation centres, some parties and observer groups raised queries about disparities between the results uploaded on INEC’s Result Viewing Portal, IREV, and the ones being declared at the collations centres.
The Centre For Transparency Advocacy, CTA, expressed worry that political parties abandoned their primary role of mobilizing voters for election and focused on vote buying.
The Executive Director of CTA, Faith Nwadishi, told journalists after the election that their findings on vote buying by political parties were distressing. She said field observations showed that apart from vote buying, there, general voter apathy was and said INEC, the security agencies and the parties must devise strategies to deal with the unpleasant development.
She said, “We call on the security agencies to train their personnel on the role and importance of election observers. Even when poll observers are properly identified, they are frequently harassed by security personnel while performing their duties. This incidence was noted in Benin along Sapele Road, as well as at a few other locations in the state.”
Nwadishi however praised voters for conducting themselves peacefully during the election. She noted that many of them came out to vote despite the heavy rains and the threat of insecurity.
She spoke of the need to educate voters about the significance of elections and extolled INEC for their performance. “Poll workers demonstrated professionalism and a thorough understanding of their responsibilities in the majority of voting places that our observers visited.
“The use of inexperienced ad hoc workers is the reason behind the flaws found in past elections. We urge INEC to make sure that, for future elections, only properly trained ad hoc employees are used.
“Clear examples of vote buying were observed in Ward 6, Unit 7, Ikpoba Okha Local Government where a party agent was arrested by EFCC operatives with cash meant for vote buying.
“Also, in Ward 1, Unit 5, Esan North-East Local Government, a party loyalist was recorded to have publicly announced the payment of N20,000 to any voter who votes for his party’s candidates,” CTA groaned.
According to her, “Our observers were harassed by some Police personnel on their way to polling units. We call on the leadership of Security agencies to train their personnel on the role and importance of election observers.
“Even when poll observers are properly identified, they are frequently harassed by security personnel while performing their duties or even while traveling to their duty posts.” This incident was seen in Benin along Sapele Road, as well as at a few other locations in the states,” she noted.
The Executive Director of Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), Bukola Idowu, raised similar concerns about the high incidence of vote buying in the Edo governorship election, which he said was observed across all three senatorial districts, with inducements ranging from ₦1,000 to ₦10,000 in cash and material incentives, undermining the credibility of the election.
Idowu however said, “On the positive side, we commend the relative peace that characterised the election day, despite the palpable tension that marked the pre-election phase.
“We believe this was allowed by the Edo citizens and reinforced by the relative adequacy in policing structure and professionalism of security personnel to allow movement of essential workers in most of the LGAs.
“There were few reports of shortage of security personnel in certain poling units–such as Ward 4:PU9 but the security agencies upon getting this information reinforced
“Even though there were few acts of violence and disruption of polls in Esan Central, Ovia Southwest and collation centers in Oredo, Egor, and Ikpoba-Okha LGAs, it is noteworthy to state that there were no fatalities recorded in this election.
“There were noticeable improvements in the functionality of BVAS in the election–even though the KD Election Day Data Room reports low cases of BVAS malfunctioning on Election Day.
Idowu further hinted that the report showed that most of these malfunctioned BVAS were due to technical issues; we also got a meagre report of ad-hoc officers not having password details as of when they got to their PUs and about to commence the process.
She commended the functionality of lReV, and the swiftness of PU results upload onto the platform – KDIEDDR noted that as of 19:22WAT, 92% of the expected PU results had been uploaded on IReV.
“Our BIP analysis shows a 6.04% inflation in the results declared by INEC. Really, results should either decrease during the collation process due to cancellations prompted by issues like violence or BVAS by passes – or remain consistent if no such cancellations occurred.
“We noticed that increase or addition in the number of votes in some collation centers. This discrepancy casts serious doubt on the transparency and credibility of the collation process.
“While all 18 LGA Returning Officers and Electoral Officers (EOs) reported no cancellations during the state-level collation, our analysis shows that at least 22 polling units had Form EC40G uploaded on IReV, indicating disruptions or BVAS related issues.
“The PVCs collected in these polling units exceed the margin of lead based on the IReV-collated results, raising concerns about the accuracy of the declared outcome.
“On September 20,2024, KDI activated its Election Day Data Room (EDDR), which functioned as the central hub for gathering, analyzing, and reporting real-time information from the field.
“The EDDR ensured that data from our deployed observers was carefully reviewed, verified and processed to offer immediate insights to election management bodies (EMBs) and stakeholders, facilitating prompt responses to emerging issues.
“On Election Day-21st September, KDI deployed 431 trained observers across Edo’s18 LGAs and192 wards. These observers provided live updates on electoral incidents, the conduct of election officials, ballot integrity, and security-related issues.
“One of the most significant challenges was the late arrival of election materials, particularly, which led to delays in the commencement of voting.
“These logistics setbacks were compounded by adverse weather conditions, such as rain fall in parts of Esan West, Esan Southeast, and Owan West, which disrupted the transportation of materials and affected voter turnout in some areas.”
Reacting to the results announced by the INEC, Yiaga Africa, one of the observer groups, said that the election failed the electoral integrity test as INEC officials compromised the collation process.
Yiaga Africa Chairman, Edo 2024 Election Mission, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi and Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo in a statement said, “The incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers, and party agents and the collation of results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results.”
Yiaga Africa, said, “Statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC. For instance, the official results announced by INEC for APC in Oredo and Egor, LGAs fall outside the PRVT estimate. In Esan West LGA, the official results for PDP fall outside the PRVT estimates.
“Also, in Oredo LGA, the official results as announced for LP fall outside the PRVT estimates. These inconsistencies with Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the level of collation.
“The disparities between the official results released by INEC and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate manipulation of results during the collation process.
“Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials who interfered with the collation process.
“Yiaga Africa notes that the cases of disruption in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs in the course of collation created opportunities for election manipulation, raising significant concerns about the credibility and integrity of the results collation process.”
Yiaga Africa called for the immediate investigation and prosecution of polling officials and collation officers who are engaged in results manipulation and flagrant violations of the guidelines on results collation.
The Centre for Credible Leadership and Citizens Awareness, CCLCA through its Convener, Dr. Gabriel Nwambu and Secretary, Mr. Osaretin Omoh, however said that the Edo 2024 governorship election was credible, saying it was generally free, fair and credible as the electoral body conformed to most of the standards. CCLCA is a coalition of 51 Accredited Election Observer organizations
Edo State Civil Society Organizations, EDOCSO, blamed the major political parties for engaging in votes buying which has undermined the electoral process. EDOSCO Coordinator General, Comrade Omobude Agho said, “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”, Omobude added.
“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,” he stated.
Edo State chapter of the PDP accused INEC and security agencies of rigging the elections for the APC. The party also described the election as a charade and dismissed the outcome as announced by INEC.
The Deputy Director-General, Media and Publicity, of the Asue/Ogie Campaign Management Council, Olu Martins, said the INEC made the election a must win for the APC.
The governorship candidate of People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Patience Ndidi Ofure Key, said the election, which should have been a moment of hope, and a step forward for the people of Edo was tragically marred by manipulation, vote-buying, and outright rigging.
Key said the people of Edo State have been so deeply impoverished by decades of mismanagement that many now believe selling their votes is a solution to their immediate hunger. “Vote buying and selling is not just a crime-it is a deliberate act of self-sabotage.”
In its reactions to the issues raised about the election, INEC rejected blame for shortcomings observed in the election.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said vote-buying is linked to the actions of political parties, and not the electoral body. “Vote-buying and alleged result manipulation are all tied to unscrupulous attempts to gain an unmerited advantage in order to win an election.
“INEC cannot and should not be held responsible for vote-buying. We are doing our best to fulfill our expected roles. Other stakeholders should also play their part and stop undermining the electoral process,” Oyekanmi said.
He noted that the commission had consistently worked to improve the credibility of elections and had implemented various recommendations from national and international observers.
“We have consistently implemented various recommendations offered by our national and international observers, which are implementable through administrative means.
“I think the commission deserves some commendation for its efforts. It’s really tough managing the electoral system in this country. The onus is now on political actors and voters to play their expected roles and work with INEC to stop the menace of vote buying,” he added.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Frank Mba, who supervised security during the election said, “We have a total of six arrests. That’s a summary. We expect this number to shoot up in the course of investigations, because we expect that there will be accomplices.
“I mean there will be people who aided, who abetted, who procured, who facilitated who sponsored these suspects who were arrested. We also recovered a total number of four weapons, of different mix. This is also a subject of a very wide investigation. Live ammunition were also recovered in the process of recovering those weapons.”
“A total number of 58 voter’s cards that were in unlawful position of a suspect, some stolen or illegally illicitly acquired BiVAS machines were equally recovered, while we fully recovered some amounts in cash.”
For several days after the election, the women’s wing of the Edo State Chapter of PDP protested across major streets in Benin metropolis asking for the restoration of the election to Ighodalo, the PDP candidate. The women carried placards of various inscriptions like “INEC Sack Edo State INEC Resident Electoral Commission”, “Edo PDP Won The Election But INEC And Police Colluded To Change It.”
Spokesperson for the group and former chairman, Esan West Local Government Council, Hon. Stella Okoro, said they were deeply pained over the outcome of the just concluded Edo State governorship election.
“We are troubled because of our stolen mandate. Our stolen mandate is what we are asking for. We are not lions and tigers, we voted, Edo people came out to vote for Asue Ighodalo and that is why we mothers are here today, we are in pains, we are mourning, we are on blacks, telling them to give us back our stolen mandate.”
“We tell them no. It is our mandate. We are calling on the INEC, we are calling on the police, we are calling on the soldiers that they used to intimidate us, that they used to rob us. Before the election, they were embarrassing our sons and daughters.
“They arrested our people and they were taken to Abuja, some were in the State CID. We know what we passed through to bring back our children. We are not happy. We have never seen this kind of election before.
Also speaking, the Oredo Women Leader, Lady Meg Agbokhai, said the party laboured and toiled for their victory and that they will not fold their arms and allow their mandate given to Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie to be stolen adding that they will do everything possible to reclaim it.
The 2024 campaigns were also short on inclusiveness with issues concerning women, youths, people living with disabilities and other minorities. The main planks of the campaigns were anchored on the contest for power between political godfathers. At the climax of the electioneering focus shifted from the actual candidates that were running for the election to a battle between the outgoing governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole.
But the election was mainly decided between career politicians and technocrats. While the PDP candidate was a boardroom technocrat, the APC candidate had a long running career as a politician that had taken tutelage under old politicians like Tony Anenih and Oshiomhole.
Well educated, Ighodalo’s mother was the first female permanent secretary in the defunct Western Region and had spent a lot of his career time outside Edo State. He spoke the King’s English and often cited facts and figures to support his claims.
The APC candidate on the other hand had a chequered educational career, which manifested in the dates and claims on his certificates. Though he smattered with his speeches during the campaigns, he was seen more like a home-boy, who could relate better with the people.
The battle axe is now in the hands of Okpebholo. He has to prove from November 12 that his election on September 21 was not a fluke. Barring whatever may come out of the election tribunals, he has an arduous task to unite the state and move it forward.
By Emmanuel Obe, Iduozee Efe Paul
and Clifford Christopher Solomon
