The nullification of the October 22, 2013 election in Esan North East Local Government Area by the Edo State LG Election Tribunal is a “detour by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to cover its track”, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has alleged.
Reacting to the Tribunal’s Tuesday judgment, PDP Chairman in the state, Dan Osi Orbih, posited that its party candidate, John Yakubu, should have been declared winner of the Local Government election.
He insisted that there was overwhelming evidence in support of Yakubu’s victory instead of outright nullification of the election.
Following the declaration of the APC candidate, Solomon Ogor, as the winner of te council poll by the Chairman of the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC), PDP and its candidate, Yakubu, had challenged the result of the election.
They anchored the challenge on the fact that the results were declared on the basis of some fictitious figures that did not emanate from the wards that make up the Local Government Council Area.
The State PDP Chairman, Orbih, in statement said it had in its possession a video of a meeting at the Edo State Government House, where top leaders of the APC rehearsed a plot that was acted out at the Tribunal that culminated in the Tuesday verdict.
“We are fully armed with graphic details of their evil plot. The original plot was for the Tribunal to declare the APC candidate winner of the election but that failed due to the good work of our team of lawyers and the witnesses we called on.
“They were, however, confronted by a deluge of evidences we presented including EDSEIC Ward Returning Officers who attested to the fact that PDP won the elections. They quickly made a detour switched to the second plot which was to nullify the result. To say the least, we are disappointed with the Edo APC government and their principal actor, Adams Oshiomole, in this unfolding drama.
“The verdict falls short of our expectations as our candidate would have been declared winner if justice had been served. Now that the tribunal has ruled that there was no collation of result, from where did EDSIEC get the result it announced? We therefore call for the arrest and prosecution of the chairman the EDSIEC, Solomon Ogor, who criminally and fraudulently announced an APC manufactured result,” Orbih said.
He said the party’s next line of action would be determined soon.
