…As Obaseki Defends INEC’s Office Visit
By BAMIDELE DUROJAIYE
EDO State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, alongside Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of Adamawa; and Asue Ighodalo, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election have denied announcing collated results from the state collation office
Obaseki has also defended his visit to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC’s) office earlier.
According to Godwin Obaseki, he was at the office of the INEC in the early hours of Sunday for information on what was stalling the collation of results of the governorship election.
In a press conference monitored online on Channels Television, Obaseki alongside Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of Adamawa; and Asue Ighodalo, disclosed that it was after he visited the INEC office that the commission postponed collation to 10 am.
Fintiri, however, denied announcing results, saying figures he reeled out were of some polling units and local governments, received from party agents.
He insisted that he was not usurping the powers of INEC by his action.
Fintiri said: “I did not announce results, I only informed the public on the exact figure from our collation agents that was ongoing before INEC disrupted the process.
“INEC should be accused of violating the Electoral Act, not me,” Fintiri said.
Meanwhile, Governor Obaseki was spotted at the INEC office at about 2am and report claimed he was there for almost three hours until some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) protested his presence at the facility, which eventually let to the DIG in charge of Edo state election, Mr. Frank Mbah, to intervene and walk the governor out of the INEC premises.
But in the briefing, Obaseki claimed his visit enabled INEC to release information regarding the results, which the commission refused to as reported by some PDP agents.
“At about 1am, I got a report that collation was supposed to have been moved to the INEC head office.
“I also got reports from our agents that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation centre,” he said.
“At that point in time, I called the REC to find explanation as to what was going on. There was no response. I went to INEC to meet with the REC to try and understand what steps the INEC was taking to continue the process of collation.
“When I got in there at about 2am, I did not see any collation taking place and the REC refused to come out to explain what the situation was.
“Subsequently, the DIG Police, Frank Mba, came in and had a meeting with me where I explained that if INEC was postponing or stopping the collation process, as part of the rule, they should inform the public and citizens on what was next.
“At about 3am, there was no information from INEC as to what was going on and what was going to happen next.
“It was after my meeting with Mr. Frank Mba that INEC released a statement at about 5am this morning informing the public that collation process will start at 10am.
“My going there was to obtain information from INEC because they had refused to put any information in the public domain as to what was going on.”