The Labour Party in Edo State has rejected the result of the Edo State Local Government Election held on Saturday as announced by the State Independent Electoral Commission.
The Labour Party condemned in totality the election conducted by the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, describing it as another sad testimony of how low a state government can descend in attempting to trash the gains of democracy.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Labour party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, in Abuja on Sunday.
Quoting Abure, Ifoh stated that democracy can only succeed when the authorities allow the votes of the people to count and the choices of the voters are respected.
He said, “Reports from our agents across most of the polling units in the state confirmed that there was a deliberate effort by the EDSIEC to frustrate voters by ensuring that the electoral officers either came late to the polling units or didn’t show up at all.
“In a few places where the election was held, insufficient ballot papers were brought with no single result sheet.
“But at the end of the day, results were churned out, with the candidates of the People’s Democratic Party returning elected.”
He further said, “Before the election, credible information reached us that the state government had no intention of conducting any election, let alone a credible one.
“The EDSIEC we gathered simply took instructions from the government house and announced an already prepared list as the winners of the election.
“Edo people and Nigerians deserve the best to represent them in government. What happened in Edo State was a mockery of democracy, and such things must not be allowed to stand.
“We, therefore, call on the state government to also condemn the charade that happened on Saturday, denounce the outcome, and call for a fresh and credible election.
“State Independent Electoral Commissions across Nigeria have failed to help democracy grow. They are purely appendages of the state government, and there is nothing independent about them.
“We therefore call on the national assembly to scrap the commission and entrust the conduct of the local government elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission for proper management.
“The State Independent Electoral Commission has become an embarrassment to democracy in Nigeria. It is therefore time to scrap them so as to restore sanity in our grassroot politics.”
