APC puts pressure on INEC chairman and REC to suspend vote of results in Edo

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the All Progressives Congress (APC) is putting increasing pressure on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, to suspend the counting of results in Edo State.

In some local government areas, the compilation of results is still ongoing following the state’s gubernatorial elections, which took place on Saturday.

Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national spokesman, said in a statement that intelligence information available to the party indicated that the “APC is increasing pressure on the @inecnigeria chairman and the Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to suspend the voting process to enable manipulation of the INEC portal and replace the genuine unit results with fake numbers in favour of the APC.”

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The PDP said its candidate Asue Ighodalo was leading in the election, adding that the APC was planning to use thugs to invade assembly centres to disrupt the electoral process.

He added: “Intelligence information available to the PDP indicates that they are attempting to facilitate manipulation of the INEC portal and replace the actual results of the units with fake figures in favour of the APC.”

Our party has also been informed that the APC is increasingly putting pressure on the military to withdraw from its positions to enable the APC to use its armed thugs to disrupt and manipulate the assembly process.

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“The PDP puts it very clearly to INEC and APC that the people of Edo State already have the authentic results from polling units across the state and that any attempt by any person or group to manipulate the results will further inflame the already tense situation and will have very serious consequences for the perpetrators.”

“INEC must not lose sight of the violent protests that followed the criminal attempt by the former Adamawa State Electoral Commissioner, Mallam Hudu Ari, to rig the outcome of the 2023 gubernatorial election in the state, which almost resulted in the death of some INEC officials.

“INEC and APC must take note that any attempt to change the outcome of the Edo State governorship election will bring dire consequences as the people have signalled that they are prepared to use all means permissible in a democracy, including legitimate physical confrontation if necessary, to protect their votes.

“The PDP calls on the Electoral Commission to withstand the pressure from the APC and ensure that no one manipulates the results obtained from the polling units.

“Our party commends the military for its professionalism in defending our democracy in the Edo State governorship election and calls on the military high command not to give in to pressure from the APC to withdraw from their posts and allow the process to be manipulated.

“The PDP reiterates its call on the people of Edo State to remain at the coalition centre in large numbers and monitor the electoral process to ensure that their will expressed at the polls is validated.”