By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors have appealed to the stakeholders in the Edo State governorship election to ensure that the collation centres were secured.
The governors, who made the appeal include the National Chairman of the PDP Campaign Council and Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike; Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
The governors, who spoke in Benin City on Saturday, September 19, 2020, hailed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies for conducting what they described as a peaceful election in the state.
They also pointed out that the the work was not over until the results of the election were released.
Meanwhile, candidate of the PDP, Governor Godwin Obaseki, on Saturday defeated the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osagie Ize-Iyamu in Oredo Local Government Area of the state.
But, while assessing the governorship election, Wike said, “The Edo election has been quite peaceful and I want to commend everybody for the peace we have enjoyed.
“Like I have always said, problems do not arise at election but during collation. So we call on INEC to fulfill the promise it made to Nigerians that it will release the Edo election results at real time.
“We are very happy with the election so far. But you cannot find security presence at the ward collation centres. After results have been announced at polling units, we expect that police presence will be more at the ward collation centres. That is where we feel concerned now.
“We appeal to the federal government to mobilise security personnel to the various ward collation centres and the local government collation centres so that the people’s mandate can be protected.
“I urge the people; the media, civil society organisations and voters to be vigilant at this time and watch over developments at the collation centres.”
Governors Okowa and Makinde also called for the success recorded in the voting process be extended to collation of results so that the PDP and Nigerians will commend INEC, for a job well done. “The people of Edo State have indeed spoken very loud and clear. We want the will of the people to remain sacrosanct and must not be subverted under any guise,” Makinde said.
