U
Udeze Ekene
Guest
The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has explained why he had to visit the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) collation center for Saturday’s governorship election.
Governor Obaseki said that he got a call that INEC suspended the collation of results without informing the public.
Obaseki added that he was also informed that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agents were not allowed into the collation center by INEC.
Speaking with newsmen on Sunday, the Governor of Edo noted that it was after he visited INEC’s collation center that INEC gave a statement.
His words: “At about 1 a.m. I got a report that the collation was supposed to have been moved to the INEC head office. I also got reports from our agents that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation process. At that point in time, I called the REC to find explanation as to what was going on. There was no response. I then went to INEC to seek to meet with the REC to try and understand what steps the INEC was taking to continue the process of collation.
“When I got in there about 2 a.m., I did not see any collation taking place, and the REC refused to come out to explain what the situation was. Subsequently, the DIG police, Frank Mbah then came in and had a meeting with me where I explained that if INEC was postponing or stopped the collation process, then as part of their rules, they should inform the public or the citizens what next.
“At about 3 a.m., there was no information from INEC as to what was going on or what was going to happen next. It was subsequently after my insistence and meeting with Mr. Frank Mba that INEC now released a statement at about 5 a.m. this morning informing the public that collation process will start at 10 a.m. this morning.
“So my going there was essentially to obtain information from INEC because they had refused to put any information in the public domain as to what was going to happen with the collation process.”
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