The governor of Adamawa, Ahmadu Fintiri, has said Nigeria’s democracy suffered yet another attack in Edo over the weekend.
Yesterday, the 22nd of September, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the Edo gubernatorial election.
The APC’s candidate, who is a serving senator, won the election after polling 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who got 247,274 votes.
The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Olumide Akpata came a distant third with a total of 22,763 votes.
However, Fintiri, who was the chairman of the PDP campaign council for the election, alleged that the election was marred by “vote-buying, disruption of collation processes, and suspicious results”.
“I weep for Nigeria’s democracy after witnessing the shameful Edo Gubernatorial poll,” Fintiri posted on X.
Prior to the time the final results were announced, the Adamawa governor held a press conference alongside Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo; and Asue Ighodalo, candidate of the PDP in the election.
At the briefing, Fintiri reeled out collated results of some Edo LGAs, and was instantaneously criticised by the opposition party for “usurping the powers” of the electoral umpire.
“The APC’s desperate attempts to discredit me by falsely claiming I announced results won’t distract from the real issue. I merely shared results from INEC’s Irev portal, as collated by INEC from the various Local Government Areas,” Fintiri added.
“What’s truly shameful is APC’s national chairman flying into Edo with a private jet on election day, defying movement restrictions, while their Governors used armoured escorts to intimidate voters.
“This blatant disregard for democratic norms is the real brigandage.
“Nigerians are outraged, slamming INEC for compromising and favouring APC. The reported vote-buying, disruption of collation processes, and suspicious results with more votes than accredited voters undermine trust in our democracy.
“Democracy indeed is under attack. We must condemn this rape of democracy and demand accountability. The world is watching, and Nigeria deserves better.”
The Adamawa governor had also alleged that agents of the PDP were granted access to the collation centre.