Asue Ighodalo, the governorship candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is optimistic about prevailing in his case at the Edo State Election Petitions Tribunal.
Ighodalo lost to Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by a significant margin of 44,393 votes in the closely contested governorship election held on September 21.
Ighodalo received 247,274 votes, while Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes. Olumide Akpata, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, finished third with 22,763 votes.
Read Also: BREAKING: 25 Observer Groups Thumb Down Edo Election, Gives Strong Reasons
In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Ighodalo asserted that the election that resulted in Okpebholo being declared governor-elect was neither free nor fair.
He further revealed that his legal team has identified over 150 polling units where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not utilized.
“There is a lot of data, information, evidence that we have. We are fully confident that going through the tribunal, we will win the case.
“We will regain our mandate and we are clear without any doubt that we are the winners of the election last Saturday,” he stated.
During the broadcast, the PDP candidate accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and police operatives of undermining the will of the Edo people.
Ighodalo claimed that the people of Edo overwhelmingly supported him and his party in the election held last Saturday.
He alleged, without providing evidence, that the APC manipulated the election in collusion with electoral officials.
“We didn’t rig. When APC and INEC saw that APC was losing woefully, they then subverted the electoral laws and the guidelines.
“Collations are done at the polling units and then you go to the ward and then the local government collation centre and then the state. There was a jump, from ward straight to the state,” Ighodalo stated.
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaihFajBadmT29ufud2Z
