The National Chairman of the Edo State Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Saturday warned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, against declaring the governorship election inconclusive.
He said INEC must keep to its promise of a transparent process.
Wike, who noted that the collation of results was the most critical stage, urged security personnel to prevent breaches, adding that the people of the state should defend their votes up to the collation centres.
The PDP campaign council chairman gave this warning during an interview in the Edo 2020 Situation Room streamed on Governor Godwin Obaseki’s Youtube Channel and monitored by our correspondent.
Wike said, “We have results from about 2,000 polling units from the various wards and from the intelligence we have gathered, I do believe that INEC will keep to that promise of being transparent.
But we are getting a bit worried that INEC said they have 700 unit results which is not correct and that calls for concern. We don’t believe that INEC has only 700. It is more than 2,000 that we have.
“Again, as we speak, they ought to have moved to the ward collation centres before they move to the local government collation centres. But we cannot find the security personnel around the ward collation centres and that gives us concern.
“Why is it that the security personnel are not at the ward collation centres? So, I urge the Inspector-General of Police to move his men to the ward collation centres.
“They must not allow miscreants to disrupt the electoral process. I believe that the commission will continue with what they have done.
“Like we have said, we don’t want this election to be inconclusive. This is the critical stage where you may see disruptions and then it will be declared inconclusive. INEC should fulfil its promise that this election will be transparent. We don’t want to hear inconclusive.”
Also, in the Situation Room, the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, added that it was surprising that the PDP got polling unit results faster than the electoral commission.
They insisted that the people’s votes must count.
