From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Edo State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, raised concerns over alleged discrepancies in the results uploaded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on its IREV and the ones written on its EC8C.
The state chairman of the party, Dr Anthony Aziegbemi told INEC in Benin to review the collated results of the governorship election before the final announcement.
He told newsmen that the entries the electoral officers made were totally different from the actual results uploaded on the INEC IREV at the polling units.
Aziegbemi noted that the results had allegedly been inflated in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) through deducted votes from the PDP.
He said: “It has come to our attention that the electoral officers appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the Edo State governorship election, made entries that are totally different from the actual results as uploaded on the INEC IREV, thereby unjustly inflating votes in favour of the APC and deducting the votes of the PDP.
“For specifics, please find below the following; Akoko-Edo LGA, a simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV shows that the APC obtained 25,010 votes while 34,847 votes was recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer.
“While the PDP, at collation of the votes from the results uploaded on the IREV got 18,620 but 16,865 was returned on the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer.
“It would Interest you that in ward 9, Akoko-Edo LGA from the 36 polling unit results uploaded on the IREV, the total votes obtained by the APC is 2,350, while 9,104 was entered into the EC8B result for the APC.
“The total votes for the PDP is 1,359 while 633 was entered in the EC8B in the LGA, where elections did not hold in Ward 6.
“Also, in Ward 6 Akoko-Edo, 12, 17, 16, 18, 14 and 16, results were returned for the said polling units in the ward result sheet (EC8B).”
Aziegbemi also referred to Egor Local Government, saying: “A simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV shows that the APC obtained 10,972 votes while 16,760 votes was recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer. While for the PDP, a collation of the votes from the results uploaded on the IREV is 14.485 but 14,658 was returned on the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer.
“It would interest you to note that the collation of the Egor LGA was not done at the designated LGA centre but was moved to the INEC State Headquarters and the PDP agent was not allowed access to be part of the exercise.”
Similarly, he pointed out discrepancies in Etsako West Local Government Area, saying: “A simple collation of all the votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV shows that the APC obtained 29,858 votes while 32,107 votes was recorded in the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer. While for the PDP, a collation of the votes from the results uploaded on the IREV is 16,712 but 17,483 was returned on the EC8C declared by the LGA Returning Officer.
“The above highlighted irregularities which are very apparent are extremely scandalous and a brazen attempt to steal the mandate of the PDP and also a terrible embarrassment to the commission.”
Aziegbemi, therefore, demanded immediate re-collation and re-computation of the actual results for the various polling units in the highlighted local government areas in compliance with the INEC guidelines and regulations, which mandates that votes from various units and wards be properly collated.
