A civil society organization, Yiaga Africa, has criticized the Edo State governorship election results, citing a lack of transparency and integrity in the collation process.
In a statement released Monday, Yiaga Africa’s leadership expressed concerns over the manipulation of results by biased Independent National Electoral Commission officials and other actors.
The group, which deployed 325 observers across Edo’s 18 local government areas, utilized its Process and Results Verification for Transparency methodology to monitor the election, according to Channels TV.
Yiaga Africa’s findings contradict INEC’s declaration of APC’s Monday Okpebholo as the winner with 291,667 votes, followed by PDP’s Asue Ighodalo and LP’s Olumide Akpata.
According to Yiaga Africa, the compromised collation process undermines the election’s overall integrity.
The group’s concerns highlight the need for electoral reform and improved transparency in Nigeria’s democratic processes.
Yiaga Africa’s statement was signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director.
The development adds to ongoing debates surrounding Nigeria’s electoral system and the role of civil society organizations in promoting democratic accountability.
The group said it recorded incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers and party agents and the collation of results.
It added, “Yiaga Africa’s estimates are based on official results announced at the polling unit, from a representative random sample of polling units. As highlighted in our pre-election report, Yiaga Africa will amongst other factors consider the quality of election day processes in assessing whether the 2024 Edo governorship satisfies the electoral integrity test. In this regard, Yiaga Africa considered the integrity of accreditation, voting, counting, and collation of results.
“INEC consistently applied its guidelines in managing the accreditation and voting process in a significant number of polling units. Despite some isolated incidents, Post Election Statement on the September 2024 Edo State Governorship Electionof inadequate election materials, the BVAS machines functioned optimally, and all voters in the queue by 2:30pm were allowed to vote, despite the late opening of polls. The polling officials uploaded polling unit results on the IReV in a timely manner, making it possible for citizens to access polling unit level results.
“However, the incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers and party agents and the collation of results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results.”
Based on reports received from the sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa can project the expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin.
However, it said it is only able to verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins.
“If the official results do not fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the results may It said, have been manipulated.
“According to INEC, the All Progressive Congress (APC) received 51.1% of the votes, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 43.3% of the votes, and the Labor Party garnered 4.0% of the votes. Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC. For instance, the official results announced by INEC for APC in Oredo and Egor, LGAs fall outside the PRVT estimate. In Esan West LGA, the official results for PDP fall outside the PRVT estimates. Also, in Oredo LGA, the official results as announced for LP fall outside the PRVT estimates. These inconsistencies with Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the level of collation.
“The disparities between the official results released by INEC and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate manipulation of results during the collation process. Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials who interfered with the collation process. Yiaga Africa notes that the cases of disruption in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs in the course of collation created opportunities for election manipulation, raising significant concerns about the credibility and integrity of the results collation process.”
The group, however, said INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 18 LGA released are consistent with its WTV PRVT estimates.
It said, “Yiaga Africa is able to estimate that turnout is between 20.9% and 24.1% (22.5% ± 1.6%), while INEC’s official result is 22.4%. Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates for rejected ballots are between 2.2% and 3.2% (2.7% ± 0.5%).”
