Following the declaration of Senator Monday Okpebholo as the winner of the Edo governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Yiaga Africa, an election observer, has raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
On Tuesday, they urged for a thorough investigation into allegations of result manipulation by certain INEC officials.
This call for scrutiny was articulated in a post-election statement co-signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo election, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa. The statement expressed alarm over inconsistencies observed between the officially announced results and data received from sampled polling units, suggesting potential discrepancies that could compromise the election’s credibility.
Yiaga Africa emphasized that their capacity to verify the election results relies on their projected estimates. According to the organization, they can accurately project vote shares within a specified margin. However, should the official results fall outside these parameters, it raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the declared outcomes.
Notably, the official tally revealed the APC securing 51.1% of the votes, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) obtaining 43.3%, and the Labor Party garnering 4%. However, after analyzing reports from 287 out of 300 sampled polling units—representing a significant 96%—Yiaga Africa’s findings indicated troubling inconsistencies in the results released by INEC.
Particular discrepancies were noted in the announced outcomes for APC in the Oredo and Egor local government areas (LGAs), which fell outside Yiaga Africa’s projected estimates. Similarly, the official results for the PDP in Esan West and for the Labor Party in Oredo also deviated from the expected figures. These deviations strongly suggest that the results may have been altered during the collation phase.
Yiaga Africa’s findings underline the possibility of tampering during the collation process, with key calls for accountability aimed at biased INEC officials who allegedly manipulated data. Additionally, they pointed to interference from security personnel during the collation, raising further concerns about the robustness of the election’s oversight.
The statement from Yiaga Africa highlighted specific areas, such as Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo, where disruptions reportedly facilitated opportunities for electoral manipulation. This situation casts a shadow over the overall credibility and integrity of the results collation process.
In light of these serious allegations, Yiaga Africa has called for the immediate investigation and prosecution of any polling and collation officers found to have engaged in unethical practices or violations of electoral guidelines.
