By Dipo Olowookere
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has disclosed on Monday that it would go to the election petitions tribunal to challenge outcome of the Edo State governorship election on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.
This was made known by the Edo State PDP Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, in a chat with Punch in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Mr Orbih explained that the party would leave nothing to chance to prove that the result was manipulated and that it would also expose the alleged corruption and incompetence of the electoral commission.
“Of course, we are going to file our petition at the election petitions tribunal. We will give it our all. If nothing else, to expose to Nigerians how corrupt and incompetent INEC is, under its present leadership.
“Our lawyers are busy; they are working. Until they formally file a petition, all I can say is that we are going to challenge the result of this election at the tribunal,” he said.
“We must give that benefit of doubt, rather than resort to self-help or take the law into our hands. We want to test this obvious fraudulent manipulation of INEC, in collaboration with the state government, in the election result in the judiciary,” he further disclosed.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had last Thursday declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Godwin Obaseki, as the winner of the gubernatorial election.
Mr Obaseki was said to have polled a total of 319,483 votes while his counterpart in the PDP, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, got 253,173 votes to come second.
But the PDP had rejected the result, which it described as a fraud, and accused INEC of alleged complicity.
