The candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recently concluded governorship election in Edo State, Asue Ighodalo, has expressed strong confidence that he will reclaim his supposedly ‘stolen’ mandate at the Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal.
Recall that in the closely contested governorship election held on September 21, Ighodalo faced defeat against Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), with a significant vote difference of 44,393.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ighodalo won 247,274 votes, while Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes. Olumide Akpata, representing the Labour Party (LP), finished in third place with 22,763 votes.
However, while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Ighodalo asserted that the election resulting in Okpebholo’s election as governor was neither free nor fair.
He further noted that his legal team has pinpointed over 150 polling units where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not utilized.
“There is a lot of data, information, evidence that we have. We are fully confident that we will win the case going through the tribunal.
“We will regain our mandate and we are clear without any doubt that we are the winners of the election last Saturday,” Ighodalo stated.
During the broadcast, the PDP candidate charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and law enforcement officials with undermining the desires of the people of Edo.
Ighodalo asserted that the citizens of Edo had decisively cast their votes in favour of him and his party in the previous Saturday’s election.
He claimed, without providing any supporting evidence, that the APC manipulated the election in conjunction with electoral authorities.
“We didn’t rig. When APC and INEC saw that APC was losing woefully, they then subverted the electoral laws and the guidelines.
“Collations are done at the polling units and then you go to the ward and then the local government collation centre and then the state. There was a jump, from ward straight to the state,” Ighodalo maintained.