Edo 2024: APC takes early lead, wins 10 LGAs out of 16
The All Progressives Congress has short in the lead in Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State. Before the announcement of a break at the collation centre in Benin City, the Edo State capital, at about 2:10pm, APC was in the lead. It had won in 10 out of the 16 local government areas where the results had been announced. Edo State has 18 local government areas. The Peoples Democratic Party took the remaining six local government areas. The results from two local government areas were still being expected. The collation of result will resume at 5pm. Meanwhile, the accredited civil society organisations have expressed concerns on the transparency of the results collation process in the 2024 Edo Governorship election. The Group, in a joint-signed statement, opined that reports of disruptions at ward and local government collation centres, including intimidation of INEC officials and attempts to collate result ls contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, raise significant concerns about the credibility of the results collation process. “We acknowledge INEC’s recent statement recognising reports of result mutilation and its commitment to investigate and after any proven violations. “In light of this, we urge INEC to invoke its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 to review any declarations and return where results were not declared voluntarily or violated provisions of the electoral act and INEC regulations, and guidelines. “We further call on security agencies to refrain from interference in the collation process and to ensure that accredited party agents, the media, and the election observers are granted full access to collation centres. “We wish to emphasise that the role of security agencies in the election is to safeguard the process and not to create a situation that will undermine the transparency of the process and this impact negatively on the credibility of the outcome of the election,” statement read. Results so far: Etsako West LG APC: 32,107 LP: 2,116 PDP: 17,483 Etsako Central LG APC: 11,906 LP: 381 PDP: 8,455 Etsako East LG APC: 20,167 LP: 604 PDP: 9,683 Owan West LG APC: 19,380 LP: 446 PDP: 14,189 Orhionmwon LG APC: 16,059 LP: 556 PDP: 14,614 Ovia South-West LG APC:10,150 LP: 849 PDP: 10,260 Esan North-East LG APC: 10,648 LP: 194 PDP: 12,522 Esan Central LG APC: 10,990 LP: 418 PDP: 8,618 Akoko Edo LG APC: 34,847 LP: 2,239 PDP: 15,865 Egor LG APC: 16,760 LP: 1,966 PDP: 14,658 Esan South-East LG APC: 8,398 LP: 98 PDP: 14,199