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Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Edo governorship election, has raised the alarm over alleged irregularities in the exercise, saying it might turn out to be the “worst election in the history of this country”.
Ighodalo, a frontrunner in the election alongside Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said this during a press conference at his party's Situation Room in Benin City, Edo State capital on Sunday, September 22, 2024.
He alleged that PDP agents were denied access to some local government collation centres, a development he described as bad omen for Nigeria's democracy.
“From our perspective, the way these elections are going, they’re probably going to be the worst elections in the history of this country,” the PDP flagbearer said during the press briefing by the party’s campaign organisation.
“We have information for instance, where we have over 20 polling units where the accredited voters are less than the total votes which is not possible. We have over 20 polling units from the results that were announced yesterday where from their accredited voters, the total votes that they’ve now announced are more than the accredited voters,” he said.
Ighodalo flags irregularities at some polling units
The PDP candidate also flagged some polling units where he claimed that irregularities took place, saying such practice is “totally unacceptable”.
“There’s something definitely going wrong. There’s a result writing scheme going on and it’s totally unacceptable.
“This process is unacceptable and then they’re trying to disenfranchise our collation agents,” Ighodalo said.
“Like His Excellency (Umaru Fintiri who leads the party’s campaign organisation for the election) read, at every point, you find APC and their thugs supported by people dressed as security agents going to shoot at polling agents and disrupt processes.
“This is not acceptable in the 21st century. Definitely not in Nigeria. I think we’ve gone way past this.”