Lessons from the Edo governorship election

It is heartwarming and commendable that the recent Edo state gubernatorial election in which Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress APC, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC with 291,667 votes, took place under a relatively peaceful atmosphere despite the high stakes and divisive rhetorics by a few highly influential politicians across the state.

Despite the low turnout of about twenty-five percent of the 2,629,025

registered voters, accusations of vote buying, overvoting, late arrival of electoral materials at some of the polling centers and flagrant violation of certain provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines by some of the political parties, including the PDP and Labour Party, election observers including Yiaga Africa, we wholeheartedly commend the electorate for their peaceful conduct and abhorrence of violence before, during and after the election on Saturday September 21, 2024 in which no life was lost or anyone injured.

Similarly, we are particularly enthralled by the conduct of both winners and losers, the electoral umpire as well as the hundreds of security operatives deployed to the state to maintain law and order which ensured that the poll was devoid of any violence or major untoward incident even though a man was arrested with a gun and ammunition.

Recall that the poll which was keenly contested by 17 candidates who had crisscrossed the 18 local government areas soliciting for votes in the state saw Dr. Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who got 247,274 votes emerging second while a former national president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA and candidate of the Labour Party LP, Barr Olumide Akpata garnering 22,763 votes to place third.

A further breakdown of the poll results revealed that the APC’s candidate, and Senator representing Edo Central in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly Senator Okpebholo, clinched a vital victory in 12 of the 18 councils including Akoko-Edo, Egor, Esan Central, Etsako Central, Etsako West, the state capital, Oredo, Orhionmwon and Owan East

According to the INEC, a total of 621,435 votes were cast in the election, with the APC emerging as the winner after a close race in several LGAs but with the PDP carrying the day in six councils, Esan North East, Esan South East, Ikpoba-Okha, Igueben, Uhunmwonde and Ovia North-East.

As predicted, key political figures like serving Senator Adams Oshiomhole representing Edo North in the Senate, former Governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, former Senator Mathew Urhoghide, Engr Ogbeide-Ihama, Rt Hon Peter Akpatason, Rt Hon Julius Ihonvbere were influential to Okpepholo’s victory.

We further note that though Ighodalo and the PDP, didn’t concede defeat in the election but vowed to challenge the outcome in court, the outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki, had in a television broadcast on Monday, pleaded for peace and restraint despite what he described as “disregard to processes and the rule of law”, in the conduct of the election, he nevertheless agreed that, “The attractive thing about democracy is the power it bestows on the people to choose who governs them”.

As leader of PDP in the state, it is on record that the governor and his party had left no stone unturned in mobilizing resources and materials to ensure the victory of their candidate in the keen contest for the political soul of the nation’s Heartbeat which partly accounted for the heating up of the polity after he threatened that the state “will burn” if the electoral process was compromised and that the exercise going to be “a do-or-die” affair.

It is against this backdrop that we wish to praise the efforts of the Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, CFR, Oba of Benin, who as the royal father of the state rose up to the occasion by asking all sons and daughters of Benin Kingdom, indigenes, and non-indigenes in Edo State to participate in fasting and prayers for a peaceful governorship election which turned out to be hugely successful.

Similarly, it is gratifying that the revered monarch has declared a two-week fasting and prayer over the peaceful elections and bountiful harvest.

Chief Stanley Obamwonyi, Esere of Benin, quoted the First Class traditional ruler as inviting all sons and daughters of Benin Kingdom, indigenes, and non-indigenes in Edo State to participate from September 26 to October 9, 2024, to fast and pray daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m to appreciate God for the peaceful conduct of the election, for warding-off evil from the state, a bountiful farming harvest and peace in homes and families as well as the country at large.

However, we are deeply concerned about the diverse perspectives of the accredited observer organizations regarding their findings on the recent gubernatorial election with “ Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) West Africa and a coalition of young professionals lauding the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, for upholding the integrity of the electoral process during the recent Edo off-cycle governorship election. This comes as Adele Jinadu, Chairperson of CDD’s Election Analysis Centre, who expressed his commendation at a post-election observation news conference in Abuja reported positive feedback from its observers across the 18 LGAs regarding the availability and efficiency of INEC’s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, pointing out that: “The BVAS and iReV technology efficiently carried out accreditation and were used in virtually all polling units in a timely manner.”

The observers’ verdict however contrasted with the highly critical report of Yiaga Africa and the Center for Democracy which criticized the election’s conduct among others claimed that the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and guidelines of the INEC on the collation process appeared to have been compromised, stressing that as with previous elections, “the collation process is again a weak link”.

They contended that “Our observation of the collation process shows that it was not transparent nor opened to representatives of the various candidates in some cases. In addition, it lacks transparency in the application of the provision of the Electoral Act and the INEC Guidelines on over-voting and cancellation of results from polling units. This raised a major question on the lack of clarity and uniformity in the application of rules on cancellation of ballots across different LGAs. Indeed, the report of many collation venues operating in darkness is also questionable”.

Expectedly, this prompted a swift reaction from the ruling APC to the slur cast on the poll which noted that “election observer missions are not election management agencies and cannot usurp INEC’s statutory authority as the sole election management body in Nigeria”. Doing so the party argued would constitute a clear breach of the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, adding that “while election observer missions, like Yiaga Africa, are at liberty to share their observations about the election process with INEC and the general public, however, declaring election results or second guessing result declared by INEC in performance of its statutory duties, falls beyond their observation mandate”.

Despite the conflicting assessments of the exercise by the observers, we challenge the INEC to take special notice of the identified flaws, among them logistics challenges that resulted in the late arrival of electoral materials at some polling centres and the late commencement of voting with the view to correcting same in future polls especially the November Ondo governorship election while losers should head to the tribunal when constituted rather than resort to self-help. Congratulations to the Governor-elect, Senator Okpebholo and the Deputy Governor-elect Dennis Idahosa, a serving member of the House of Representatives for their victory.

For a better society

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