The governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki has won his polling unit.
Obaseki had after casting his vote said commended the electoral process at his polling unit. He commended voters who came out to vote despite the heavy rain experienced in the state.
His words: “You can see despite the inclement weather people have turned out in their large numbers. You can see the enthusiasm.
“It is not mid-day yet and the ballot box in my polling unit is already full. And so clearly that tells you that people are very interested because they have been mobilized. And have been very interested in this election. This is why I am not surprised.
“For now I am glad with what I see, the process in my units has been smooth. I hope the collation process will be the same. It will be peaceful and the results will be counted and there will be no destruction.
“I am glad with the extent of military presence in the state. As you know the federal security agencies have taken over the state. I am not the Chief Security Officer of the state, the Inspector General of Police, IGP is the Chief Security Officer”.
On the other hand, the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Olumide Akpata has lost his polling unit.
He pulled 32 votes against PDP that got 41. At polling unit PU11, Ward 06, Oredo LGA, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Monday Okpebholo, garnered 19.
Recall that Akpata had advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that what he experienced at his polling unit was replicated all over the state and allow the peoples’ vote to count.
According to him “The process went well, I want to hope that this is the experience of every Edo voter, but I’m not going to make that assumption standing here, I want to wait for feedback from my agents across the state, its 192 wards, 4500 polling units.
“We are hopeful that this will be the experience of every Edo voter and I am calling on INEC that the playing field should remain level, nobody should be given any undue advantage, all of our agents should be allowed into collation centres, the agent of all parties, nobody should be hindered, prevented from going into the collation centre, so that we can all witness the process, and be able to confirm that it was done in the manner as provided by law, the electoral act and the constitution.
“So, INEC has no excuse, this is an off-cycle, and they have the luxury to deploy their resources.
“All eyes are on INEC, the entire country is on INEC, and we are hoping that they will do a good job.
“It left to see if the heavy deployment of security personnel to Edo is for the people or the certain individual”.