The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the September 21 Edo State gubernatorial election, Asue Ighodalo, has vowed to reclaim his “stolen mandate” at tribunal.
Mr Ighodalo who stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today insisted that he won the election.
He alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the operatives of the Nigeria Police Force compromised the process to favor the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
He said: “There was a collusion between the INEC and the police to suppress the will of the people of Edo State.
“People of Edo State purposely voted for us. We won the election clearly. It is painful because you have many young people who felt that they were disenfranchised in the past; they feel that their votes were not counted and they asked what kind of democracy we run.
“I had been trying to encourage them that make sure your votes count but we have serious collusion by INEC and the APC working towards votes not counting.
“But this time around we will go through the judicial process and the vote will count. We are quite clear that with the evidence we have, we will show clearly that we won the election. And the mandate of the people will be upheld.”
He also dismissed the allegations that the PDP engaged in voting-buying, saying only the APC bought votes.
“We were not involved in vote buying at all. APC agents came with minted notes straight from the CBN and they were offering N20,000, N30,000 and N50,000 per vote. Our guys went to them and told them you can’t come here to buy votes,” he alleged.
