Protests in Edo over National Assembly election

THERE were two major protests yesterday against last Saturday’s election into the National Assembly as the Edo Central Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Francis Inegbeneki, has called for the cancellation of the National Assembly elections in the area.

He alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used soldiers to intimidate and harass APC members.

Also, the Akoko-Edo Federal Constituency House of Representatives candidate of the PDP, Oladele Bankole-Balogun, said that he should be declared the winner of the election into the House, alleging that results from some units in Ward 9 of the area were inflated to return the sitting lawmaker, Peter Appatason, into the House. He said he won the election and would seek legal redress to claim his mandate.

But Appatason told The Guardian that the issues were the other way round as he claimed that his opponent went around inducing voters with money.

In another development, in Edo Central Senatorial District where INEC declared the candidate of the PDP, Mr. Clifford Ordia as winner of the senatorial election, Inegbeneki accused the PDP of rigging the election in the area.

He said: “Apart from the fact that they were inducing our people with money at the polling units, soldiers were used to chase away APC members and arrested some of them in areas.

“They brought in soldiers to intimidate, harass and arrest our leaders and members stopping them from voting. In Uromi and Igueben, they were thumb-printing ballot papers. So, we are rejecting the result of the exercise and calling for its cancellation. While our people were working hard to campaign, PDP was planning to use soldiers to intimidate our people.”