#EdoDecides2024: Nigeria's democracy under attack — Adamawa gov

The governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, who chaired the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) situation room for the governorship election in Edo State, has said Nigeria’s democracy is under attack.

Mr Fintiri said this in a post on X after his party lost the election held on Saturday.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Monday Okpebholo, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), emerged victorious after scoring the highest votes in the election.

Mr Okpebholo, a sitting senator, polled 291,667 votes to defeat his major contender, Asue Ighodalo of the PDP, who scored 247,274 votes. Labour Party (LP) Olumide Akpata left with 22,763 votes.

To emerge as the winner, a candidate must have the highest votes and at least 25 per cent of the votes in at least two-thirds (12) of the state’s 18 local government areas (LGAs). Mr Okpebholo has met this criteria, according to a PREMIUM TIMES review of official results declared by INEC.

‘Rape of democracy — democracy under attack’

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

Mr Fintiri also refuted claims by the opposition APC that he announced unauthorised results.

“I merely shared results from INEC’s IRev portal, as collated by INEC from the various local government areas,” the governor said.

He also accused the APC National Chairperson, Abdullahi Ganduje, of “flying into Edo with a private jet on election day, defying movement restrictions, while their governors used armoured escorts to intimidate voters.”

Mr Fintiri added: “This blatant disregard for democratic norms is the real brigandage. Nigerians are outraged, slamming INEC 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.”

Various election observation groups, including Yiaga Africa, indicated that both parties were involved in vote-buying.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that some PDP supporters staged a protest on Sunday at INEC headquarters in Benin City to reject the results of the Saturday election.

While PDP rejected the outcome of the elections, saying it could be dubbed as the worst polls in the history of Nigeria, the APC, through its state Chairperson, Jarret Tenebe, defended the election as the fairest and most representative in the state’s history.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Governor Godwin Obaseki visited the INEC office in Benin City, Edo State, in the early hours of Sunday to protest the results collation process, which he and his party, PDP, claimed had been compromised against them.

Mr Obaseki held a four-hour meeting with INEC officials and Frank Mba, a deputy inspector general of police in charge of the election.

The governor’s visit heightened tension, with APC through its national secretary, Ajibola Basiru, accusing him of behaving like a thug.

The PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, also raised concerns over what he described as complicity between INEC officials and the police when the collation of results of two LGAs — Oredo and Ikpoba/Okha — were moved to the collation centre in Benin City.

He said the action aimed to subvert the elections and “the will of the Edo people.”

Yiaga Africa said earlier on Sunday that moving the results collation of the two LGAs violates the established procedure for results collation.