…as Oshiomhole, Ihonvbere, Akpatason, DANCO coast home to victory
Ben Peters, Benin
Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki and his cabinet members have reportedly lost their polling units to either the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or that of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.
Results trickling in from the polling units of Governor Godwin Obaseki, his Deputy, Philip Shaibu, his wife, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Osarodion Ogie, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Iyoha Osaigbovo among others showed how the Labour Party and the All Progressives Congress trounced them neatly.
However, violence ensued – “the governor cannot be defeated in his ward 4 as such, some hoodlums violently attacked officials of Independent National Electoral Commission”, it was learnt. Our reporter gathered that when it appeared that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Gregory Obi was coasting home to victory, Obaseki’s men struck.
It was learnt that hoodlums appeared with guns blazing and fired sporadically to disrupt the process – they reportedly made away with some of the ballot papers when the voters and officials of the electoral commission ran away. Upturned ballot boxes and scattered ballot papers littered the polling centre at Idia College, Benin and also at Mission Road where the thugs also visited
Going by the outcome of the result which was announced before the mayhem, the LP maintained a comfortable lead with 136 votes in the governor’s polling unit, 24 in ward four while PDP came a distant second with 56 votes while the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 27 to take the third position.
It would be recalled that Governor Obaseki had during the presidential rally in Asaba, Delta State recently, promised to deliver about 1.5 million votes to the presidential candidate of his party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Meanwhile, former Governor of Edo State and ex-National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is gradually coasting home to victory as the Senator-elect for Edo North Senatorial District – most of the results released so far are in his favour.
As at the time of filing this report, results from the six local governments of Edo North favour all the candidates of the APC contesting the National Assembly election – in Owan Federal Constituency, Professor Julius Ihonvbere is coasting home to represent his people for a second term in office. In Akoko-Edo local government area, the results are in favour of Comrade Peter Akpatason while Mr Dekeri Anamero Danco is leading his rivals with comfortable margin in the three local governments that makes up Etsako Federal Constituency.
In another development, Chairman of the Edo State Media and Publicity Committee, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. John Mayaki has delivered his polling unit for the Presidential candidate of his party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Senatorial Candidate, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and the House of Representatives candidate, Comrade Peter Akpatason.
According to a statement of result of poll from polling unit Ugbogbo, by Co-Operative Store and signed by the presiding officer, Mr Abdulsalami Ohunene Latifat, the APC presidential candidate scored 118, the LP came distant second by pulling 55, while the PDP scored 32 votes.
For the Senatorial election, the APC pulled 134, the PDP come second with 44 votes while the LP scored 35 votes. For the House of Representatives, the APC scored 127, PDP 42 and LP came distant third pulling 37 votes.
According to John Mayaki, “our people do not need cash to decide who best to represent them – so, basically, it was a cashless election. Cash or no cash, we are resolute. Fuel or no fuel, are are determined to deliver our candidates. All our candidates worked for the result you see – Asiwaju is a committed party man who has laboured and toiled for this party. Comrade paid his dues when he was governor just like Akpatason who’s also known as Mr. Project in Akoko-Edo”, Mayaki tweeted.