Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Finitri has decried the conduct and outcome of the Edo State gubernatorial election over the weekend.

He took to his verified handle on micro-blogging site, X on Sunday to lament how politically exposed persons blatantly indulged in the rape of democracy in Nigeria.

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Gov Finitri wrote, “I weep for Nigeria’s democracy after witnessing the shameful Edo Gubernatorial poll. The @OfficialAPCNg’s desperate attempts to discredit me by falsely claiming I announced results won’t distract from the real issue. I merely shared results from INEC’s Irev portal, as collated by INEC from the various Local Government Areas.

“What’s truly shameful is APC’s national chairman flying into Edo with a private jet on election day, defying movement restrictions, while their Governors used armoured escorts to intimidate voters.

“This blatant disregard for democratic norms is the real brigandage. Nigerians are outraged, slamming @inecnigeria for compromising and favouring APC. The reported vote-buying, disruption of collation processes, and suspicious results with more votes than accredited voters undermine trust in our democracy.

“Democracy indeed is under attack. We must condemn this rape of democracy and demand accountability. The world is watching, and Nigeria deserves better.”

Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, has won the Edo State governorship election held on Saturday.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the results from all 18 local government areas on Sunday, showing that Okpebholo received 291,667 votes.

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His closest competitor, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), secured 247,655 votes, while Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP) came in third with 22,763 votes.

With this lead, Okpebholo is set to be officially declared the election’s winner.

However, the PDP has raised concerns. The party’s Edo State Chairman, Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi, called on INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to review the election results before making the final declaration.

Aziegbemi claimed that the figures entered by electoral officers differed from the results uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IREV) at the polling units.

He further alleged that the APC’s results were inflated by deducting votes from the PDP.

More to follow………. 

Tension is building in Edo State as supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) protested outside the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin City, rejecting the partial results of the governorship election released so far.

INEC has announced results from 16 of the state’s 18 local government areas.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) leads with victories in 10 local governments, while the PDP has won in six.

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The protesters, chanting and waving leaves, accused INEC of tampering with the results, claiming discrepancies between the official figures and those from polling units.

One protester, identified as Frank, alleged that the results had been manipulated on INEC’s online portal. He called on President Bola Tinubu to investigate the matter.

He said, ” What we are saying is that we will not allow anyone to tamper with the wish of the Edo people. People have voted for our candidate (Ighodalo), and some people want to use the power from above to turn the results upside down. We won’t accept it. No, we won’t.

“We have the authentic results with us, and the ones they announced are different. That means someone has tampered with the results. We will not take it. We are appealing to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in this matter. Some people should not burn our state.”