LEADING election observer, Yiaga Africa, has called for an investigation of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officials allegedly involved in the manipulation of results and other infractions during the September 21 Edo State governorship election.
Insisting that the INEC’s results, which returned Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, failed the integrity test because they do not fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, the election monitoring group said there was a need to investigate electoral officers involved in the alleged manipulation of results during collation.
Piqued by Yiaga Africa’s stance on the Edo poll, the APC, yesterday, warned the group to desist from constituting itself into a parallel agency for the declaration of election results.
Results were manipulated – Yiaga Africa
In a post-election statement signed by the Chair of the 2024 Edo, Dr Aisha Abdullahi, and the Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, respectively, the group said there were inconsistencies in the officially announced results by INEC officials based on reports received from the sampled polling units.
However, the statement pointed out that Yiaga Africa can only verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins, and if the official results do not fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the results may have been manipulated.
The statement read in part: “Yiaga Africa can project the expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin. According to INEC, the All Progressive Congress received 51.1% of the votes, People’s Democratic Party, PDP, 43.3% of the votes, and the Labour Party garnered 4.0% of the votes. Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC.
“For instance, the official results announced by INEC for APC in Oredo and Egor, LGAs fall outside the PRVT estimate. In Esan West LGA, the official results for PDP fall outside the PRVT estimates. Also, in Oredo LGA, the official results as announced for LP fall outside the PRVT estimates.
“These inconsistencies with Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the level of collation. The disparities between the official results released by INEC and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate manipulation of results during the collation process.
“Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials , who interfered with the collation process. “Yiaga Africa notes that the cases of disruption in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs in the course of collation created opportunities for election manipulation, raising significant concerns about the credibility and integrity of the results collation process.
“Yiaga Africa calls for the immediate investigation and prosecution of polling officials and collation officers who are engaged in results manipulation and flagrant violations of the guidelines on results collation.”
You’re not a parallel election umpire – APC
Speaking on Yiaga Africa’s position, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr Felix Morka, stated that the INEC Edo governorship election result was based on unsubstantiated, unverified, questionable statistical parameters created by Yiaga Africa.
According to the APC’s spokesman, Yiaga Africa is out to create unnecessary confusion and the appearance of a parallel election process by its report.
He urged the organisation to refrain from enlisting itself in the season’s annals of infamy.
“The election’s outcome is an unequivocal rejection of the Governor Godwin Obaseki administration’s bad governance and endorsement of President Bola Tinubu’s visionary policies, which have transformed Nigeria’s economic landscape, strengthened security, and promoted good governance,” Morka said.
