Yiaga Africa, an election monitoring group, has said there was widespread manipulation of the Edo State governorship election results.
This revelation comes after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner.
Yiaga Africa’s report, co-signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi and Samson Itodo, said the group deployed 300 stationary and 25 roving observers across all 18 local government areas to monitor the election.
According to Yiaga Africa, the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology was used to assess the election’s integrity. The findings indicate incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs.
“The PRVT enables Yiaga Africa to independently assess the quality of Election Day processes and verify the accuracy of the official election results as announced by INEC,” the report stated.
Yiaga Africa said its statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC, particularly in Oredo, Egor, and Esan West LGAs. The group’s observers reported disruptions and manipulation during collation, undermining the credibility of the election results.
“Based on reports received from the sampled PUs, Yiaga Africa can project the expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin. However, Yiaga Africa is only able to verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins. If the official results do not fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the results may have been manipulated.
“According to INEC, the APC received 51.1% of the votes, PDP 43.3% of the votes, and the LP garnered 4.0% of the votes. Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%) sampled PUs, 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 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,” it said.
While Okpebholo was declared as the winner, with 291,667 votes, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 247,274 votes, while Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) garnered 22,763 votes.
