Monday-Okpebholo-and-Godwin-Obaseki

By Jethro Ibileke 

The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has stated that any devious plan to conceal the alleged systemic rigging of the 21 September governorship election in the state will fail.

The publicity secretary of the caretaker committee of the PDP in the state, Chris Nehikhare, stated this in response to a statement by the chief press secretary to Edo State Governor, Mr Fred Itua, alleging that former Governor Godwin Obaseki and some leaders of his party held a meeting with editors of some national newspapers he failed to name, with the intent to rubbish Okpebholo’s victory at the poll.

Nehikhare wondered why the APC would be so jittery if they truly won the election in a free, fair, and credible process.

His statement reads in part:

“Our attention has been drawn to a ridiculous and disappointing statement credited to the Chief Press Secretary to the Edo State Governor-select, Monday Okpebholo, where he made laborious and baseless claims in a desperate effort to discredit the independent analysis by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, a non-partisan research institute, which exposed the widespread manipulation that marred the September 21 governorship election.

“The analysis, backed by incontrovertible evidence and data, clearly showed the orchestration of rigging by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to favour the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The desperate attempts by Okpebholo and his media hirelings to deflect attention from these facts only underscore their fear of the truth and their unwillingness to confront the reality of their fraudulent actions.

“We want to categorically state that the centre did not release the report as observers of the election, the analysis is the outcome of careful examination and analysis of documents and data made available to the centre by INEC who are the electoral umpires.

“We sympathize with the Governor-Select and his team because we know they are not very conversant with digital tools or anything that has to do with data, which makes them extremely uncomfortable when confronted with hard facts. This is evident in their reaction to the independent analysis, where instead of addressing the data and evidence presented, they resort to baseless claims and campaigns of calumny.

“We understand their challenge, they clearly do not understand data and are unable to utilize same effectively.

“However, the data in question is a true picture of the election, based on the documents provided by INEC, which revealed the systemic rigging and brazen manipulation of the governorship election in Edo State. It is akin to daylight robbery and the robbers blatantly refused to wear masks as they robbed in their community.”

Nehikhare opined that rather than focus on addressing the weighty issues raised about the credibility of the governorship election, the APC and Okpebholo are more interested in name-calling, intimidating civil and public servants, sacking and serving as well as threatening Edo people and individuals who dare to speak up against this daylight robbery.

The PDP spokesman urged Okpebholo to get on with the business of governance, adding that his moaning and obsession with the last PDP government is daily resembling that of a jilted lover.

“The people of Edo State have spoken at the September 21 governorship poll casting their vote for the PDP, and their mandate cannot be undermined by deceit, intimidation, or baseless claims. We remain steadfast in our resolve to reclaim our party’s mandate and are confident in the judiciary to ensure that justice prevails,” the statement concluded.