By Goodluck Ikiebe.
Photo credit:, This Day.
A Non-governmental Organisation,NGO, Yiaga Africa, that observed the Edo State governorship election on Saturday, September 21, said the exercise failed its integrity test.
Yiaga stated this in a report it released on Monday and shared with newsmen in Benin, capital of Edo State.
The report was jointly signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Yiaga’s Africa Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission and Samson Itodo, the Executive Director of the organisation.
The organisation said its findings showed that votes were altered in some places at the level of collation, adding that
it applied what it called the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Edo State
governorship election.
It said: “the incidents of result manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs. There is also intimidation of INEC officials, observers and party agents.
“The election witnessed the collation of results, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results as well as inconsistencies in the officially announced results”.
The NGO said that based on reports it received from the sampled polling units, it could project expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin.
The report added that Yiaga Africa can only verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins. If the official results fall outside these ranges, it may indicate manipulation.
It further said: “According to INEC, the All Progressives Congress (APC) received 51.1% of the votes, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 43.3% of the votes, and the Labor Party garnered 4.0% of the votes.
“Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%), sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC.
“For instance, the official results announced by INEC for APC in Oredo and Egor, LGAs fall outside the PRVT estimate. In Esan West LGA, the official results for PDP fall outside the PRVT estimates. Also, in Oredo LGA, the official results as announced for LP fall outside the PRVT estimates. These
inconsistencies with Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the level of collation.
“The disparities between the official results released by INEC and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate manipulation of results during the collation process. Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials, who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials, who interfered with the collation process.
Yiaga Africa notes that the cases of
disruption in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs in the course of collation created opportunities for election manipulation, raising significant concerns about the credibility and integrity of the results collation process”.
Yiaga Africa, which said it deployed “300 stationary and 25 roving observers, covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 LGAs”, also criticised INEC’s inadequate planning in terms of logistics.
It said: “Yiaga Africa’s election day situation analysis statement highlighted logistical challenges that led to delays in the commencement of accreditation and voting at various polling units across the state.
“Inadequate planning in the supply of vehicles for transporting ad hoc officials and election materials, along with the absence of accompanying security personnel, further exacerbated the delays”.
The organisation also condemned “acts of violence and disruption of voting and results collation process by political thugs and hoodlums, particularly violence directed at voters and election officials”.
It said: “These unwholesome acts undermine the integrity of
the elections. Yiaga Africa extends its sympathies to citizens and polling officials, who suffered severe injuries and loss of valuable properties,due to these attacks and violence.
“Yiaga Africa calls on security agencies to thoroughly investigate these cases of attacks and intimidation against voters and polling officials”.
However, It noted that INEC consistently applied its guidelines in managing the accreditation and voting process in a significant number of polling units.
It said the BVAS machines functioned optimally as all voters in the queue by 2:30p.m were allowed to vote, despite the late opening of polls in some places.
It also said: “The polling officials uploaded polling unit results on the IReV in a timely manner, making it possible for citizens to access polling unit level results”.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
