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Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, PDP candidate

Edo governorship election: Anxiety grips PDP, APC as collation of results resumes

Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, PDP candidate
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, PDP candidate
Mr Godwin Obaseki, APC candidateAnxiety has gripped Edo State, as the result of the governorship election held Wednesday is being awaited.
Collation of results were suspended Wednesday night when it started getting dark and also to give room for more results to get to the collation centre, especially those results that were being brought from remote parts of the state.
Stakeholders became more anxious when online reports said that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had put the collation exercise on hold.
But explaining the situation, a source close to the national chairman of INEC who spoke to GPN early onThursday morning said that collation of results in the keenly contested election would resume around 10am.
According to him, the result of the election should be known before the end of the day, stressing that the result would be announced by INEC in Edo state.
He acknowledged the fact that the Commission had been put on its toes by the interest shown in the election by both local and international observers, pointing out that the Commission was doing all in its power to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
He insisted that INEC has no interest in who emerges winner, but confirmed that Nigerians had become too suspicious of every move being made by the Commission, assuring that they were out just to do their job.
As at the time of this report, speculations had become rife concerning the likely result of the poll, which has the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the major contenders.
While some unofficial reports have put the PDP ahead based on results so far declared, other close observers of the election that is said to be a form of referendum on the tenure of outgoing governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, say that no one can say who has won till the last ballot has been counted.
Generally, the election has been adjudged, relatively, free and fair, and violence free, but an observer said that the prevailing peace must not be taken for granted, stressing that there may be an eruption if the people have the faintest feeling that their mandate is being stolen by any manipulation, especially by INEC officials.
Another observer said that though on the surface all seemed to have gone smoothly, but that, infact, the voting was highly monetized with the two leading parties trying their hardest to outdo the other in terms of how much each vote was worth.
Some votes, we learnt, were bought for as high as N4000 while some other voters got as low as N1000 for their own votes. The result, the source said, would thus be tainted, however slightly by the amount of money thrown in by the parties.

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