Tony Iyoha, an agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Edo governorship election, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of manufacturing the results of the poll.
The collation of Edo governorship election results commenced on Sunday morning after failing to kick off on Saturday.
Iyoha spoke in an interview with Arise TV shortly after the suspension of the collation of the results.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) is currently leading with 244,549 votes, winning 10 out of the 16 LGAs announced so far, followed by the PDP, which has recorded 195,954 votes from six LGAs.
The Labour Party LP is trailing with 13,348 votes.
For most parts of the collation process, the PDP agent pushed back against results from various LGAs, describing some of them as “manufactured.”.
“It’s what we have been reduced to as Nigerians in this country, where a people will go out and vote, and after exercising their franchise, you come out and manufacture,” Iyoha said.
“You heard me; I constantly use the word. I’m a doctor of engineering and as somebody who has gone through a lot of elections. I think this is another low.
“This is the first time. It’s the first time we see people come out. They chose a candidate who never talked to the people that he wants to govern.
“The same people that came out that he didn’t speak to on what he was going to do for them, on the issues.
“And then INEC comes out to tell us that this same person that didn’t talk to them at all, as against other candidates that even spent time with them, talked to them, came on Arise, came on AIT, on Channels.
“It’s the first time we’re seeing you telling us that the people came together to vote this person.
“Look at those numbers. You were here. Then your cameras were probably at the back. I didn’t know if these ones were here too.
“When they announced the Esan figure, you heard the laughs at the back. It’s shameful, my friend.”
The PDP agent questioned the credibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), citing instances where collation in most wards and LGAs was not conducted according to regulations.
“Collation in most local governments, or in most wards, were not done. From INEC regulations, collation starts from the ward, you go to the local government collation,” Iyoha said.
“From the local government coalition, is what we have here today. You come to the state coalition center.
“Yesterday, results were moved from the ward. No collation done.”
Earlier, officials of INEC appealed to aggrieved parties to embrace the appropriate channel to challenge the outcome of the election.
The collation exercise is expected to resume by 5pm on Sunday.