One day into the Edo State governorship election, the three major political parties — Labour Party, LP; Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and All Progressives Congress, APC, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and former President Goodluck Jonathan have tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and security agencies on credible balloting.
The call came as fears of violence marring the election heightened yesterday, with suspected thugs clashing as INEC distributed sensitive election materials.
Having concluded their campaigns, the PDP, APC and LP were upbeat about their chances of winning tomorrow’s election and succeeding Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Edo State chairman of LP, Kelly Ogbaloi, told Vanguard: “The first expectation I have is that the Labour Party wins the election on Saturday, given all that we have done and further more, is that the law enforcement agencies have been given basic instructions to ensure we have free and fair elections and that is what I expect to see.
“I also expect that operations of the security will lead to a free election and make the result of the voters count at the end of the day.
“For the voters, we expect them to behave and conduct themselves properly, unless in situation where you are trying to derail their mindset by trying to indoctrinate them, wrongly, trying to pervert them by way of inducement. We expect that every voter must have conducted his or herself properly.”
To the electoral umpire, Ogbaloi said: “We have been told that all material issues of INEC will work optimally and all that was promised in the last stakeholders’ meeting that was held in Benin. So we expect that INEC would, as a matter of fact, do as promised, not as in previous times.
‘’They have spoken that all their machineries, the IREV, the portal, the BVAS, will absolutely work as required. That is our expectation.”
The chairman of the PDP, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, said he was impressed with the way INEC released materials yesterday morning but cautioned the police to ensure a credible process.
His words: “I think INEC was on top of its game today (yesterday). I was at CBN at about 8:15 am, I met the Resident Electoral Commissioner, the National Commissioner supervising Edo State, and other national commissioners there.
‘’So on that, they did a fantastic job. CBN on its own too opened its doors. The signing of the forms ECE B and C went smoothly, despite the rain. We think that is what the national chairman promised us and they did it, we think that should be applauded.
“When I was granting an interview at the CBN premises, I told the police, to make sure these materials get to the various destinations. We are hearing that the materials got to Oredo and hoodlums attacked.
‘’So we think the police dropped the ball there, and this is where I think the police would have to up their game in this exercise.”
For election day, he said: “Everybody is excited. They want to come and vote for my candidate. Everybody will be at the polling unit by 7:30 to vote so that by two o’clock, we already know the winner.
“From what INEC has done, except something catastrophic happens, they seem to know what they are doing. So we will encourage them to just stick to the rules, to the articles of the Electoral Act, do what they did today down the line to the unit level and make sure materials get to the polling units as early as 7:30 am and allow Edo people to decide who becomes their governor.
‘’That has always been our wish and say consistently that we want Edo people to decide who will be their next governor.
‘’It is only Edo people that know what is good for them. The police should up their game and not drop the ball on Saturday. In all, we are confident of victory.”
On his part, the APC chairman, Jarret Tenebe, asked the police to arrest suspects mentioned in the killing of a police inspector, alleging that some of them were still moving around freely and planning to cause crisis on election day.
He told Vanguard: “We are expecting nothing less than a credible election. We expect INEC and the police to do the right thing because we want a free and fair election, a situation of one man, one vote, which was popularized by our leader, Senator Adams Oshiomhole when he was the governor of this state. That is the kind of situation we expect in Edo State on Saturday (tomorrow).
“We appeal to the police to do the right thing and fish out the criminal elements, especially those who killed policeman and some of them are still threatening to commit more havoc against the people on the day of election.
“We have said we are not ready for trouble but if they bring trouble, we don’t have a problem with that. We have campaigned across the nooks and crannies of the state. If the process is free and credible, we will win and we are hoping for that victory.”
In a related development, Edo State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has offered a prayer for the smooth conduct of the election, with a charge to voters to vote for the most credible candidate of their choice.
In his welcome address, the Chairman CAN, Apostle Irepkono Omoike, said the prayer intercessory session has become important, against the backdrop of the threats arising from political parties’ campaigns.
He said Edo State had been known to be peaceful and that the prayer session was to intercede so that a credible candidate with the fear of God, who would love the people, respect constituted authorities and hold on to the tenet of integrity, which had remained the benchmarks of sustainable governance in the state right from Midwest, Bendel and now Edo State, would emerge.
The prayer session had in attendance all the Christian denominations in Benin City.
INEC begins distribution of materials
INEC, yesterday morning, began the distribution of sensitive materials for election to the 18 local government areas of the state from the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Akpakpava junction, Ring Road, Benin.
The development created a gridlock in the area as traffic was only opened to one lane in the ever-busy road. The area was closed to commercial activities.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Onuoha Anugbum, supervised distribution of the materials.
Poll places moral burden on INEC, security agencies —Jonathan
For a credible poll, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, also sued for peace, and charged state institutions involved in managing the process to create a level-playing field to ensure free and fair polling.
Dr. Jonathan also urged political actors and stakeholders to work towards deepening the nation’s democracy by prioritising peace and security of Edo State.
In a statement by Ikechukwu Eze, his media adviser, the former president emphasised the Edo election “places a moral burden on state agencies, especially the police and the INEC, to rise to their constitutional responsibilities as independent arbiters in our democratic process.”
For democracy to endure, he noted that “elections must be devoid of all forms of manipulation and state institutions have the obligation to guarantee peaceful, credible and transparent elections.”
Jonathan further charged the election management body to live up to expectations as an unbiased umpire and inspire confidence in all actors through a transparent voting process.
He said: “There is no doubt that loss of confidence in an election encourages political disputes, social unrest, voter apathy, increased polarisation and other far-reaching consequences that could undermine development and democratic consolidation.”
Vanguard