* Olumide Apata
By Pathfinder Reporter
Monday September 24, 2024
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The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in the last Saturday Edo Election, Mr Olumide Apata has said the election was a transaction
by the APC and PDP, enabled by those who chose to stay away.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Monday Okpebholo won the election, defeating the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo and Olumide Akpata of the LP.
Addressing the press in Benin City on Monday, Akpata, declared that the outcome of the poll lacked integrity, adding that what transpired on September 21, 2024, was not an election but a transaction by the APC and PDP, enabled by those who chose to stay away.
He said though the election was largely free from historical forms of election-day malpractice, such as ballot box snatching and stuffing, it was marred by voter intimidation and falsification of results.”Let us be clear, what transpired on September 21, 2024, was not an election but a transaction. It was enabled by those who chose to stay away, making it easier for the two dominant parties to afford a significant majority of the few votes on offer, and by those who came out and willingly sold their votes.’
More worrisome, Akpata said, was the fact that among those involved in the transactions were some LP faithful and agents who willingly sold their future for peanuts to the very political parties whose actions and policies have impoverished them.
He also picked holes in the unwitting institution of a collegiate system of government, comprising godfathers, surrogate governors, and other forces within and outside the state who hoped to puppet the governor-elect.
To Akpata, “a troubling theme emerged as the day unfolded — widespread vote-buying scheme by both the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples’ Democratic Party.
“As attested to by YIAGA Africa, a leading civil society organisation and domestic observer group, our sacred electoral process was reduced to a commodities market — a bidding war for votes.
‘’This practice, no less damaging than outright ballot stuffing, has effectively disenfranchised the people of Edo State.”
On whether he and his party will take legal action, Akpata said the results of the election had been submitted to lawyers for forensic analysis, with a view to making a determination on what to do next.
Asked if he would take an opportunity to serve in the National Assembly in 2027 as already being speculated, he said: “We went to talk to the people, God gave me the opportunity to see things for myself.
‘’I belong to a generation that is about service. We want to turn the story around, we want to change the narrative. By the time we re-organise this country, if it is local government they said I should run, I will because I am not about the position. When we are able to arrange this country, or in the course of re-arranging or re-organising this country, any task I am given, I will take.
“Like we say, if you are a manager, manage well; if you are a driver, drive well. If you are a director, direct well. If you are governor, govern well. If you are a senator, senate well. If you are a policeman, police well. That is how we are going to lead this country to the promised land.
‘’If I find myself in the National Assembly, all well. I didn’t get up to say it must be the governorship or nothing, I am owned by Nigeria, I am owned by Edo State, that is what propels me and I am worried about our state, our country. I am ready to serve in any capacity to make Nigeria a better place.”
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