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The long-awaited 2024 Edo State governorship election was held as scheduled on Saturday, September 21, 2024. At the end of the exercise, the Returning Officer for the election Prof Faruk Kuta who is also the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress winner of the election with 291,667 votes. He defeated 17 other candidates among whom is his arch-rival, PDP’s Asue Ighodalo, who garnered 247,274 votes. Out of the 18 local government areas in the state, APC outright won 10, while PDP secured eight. Not that it mattered because the two conditions to be met are twenty-five per cent of votes in two-thirds of the local governments in the state as well as a majority of valid votes cast.

I was a member of the Election Day Data Room Faculty of Kimpact Development Initiative, one of the INEC’s accredited Domestic Observers for the election. I arrived in Benin City on Thursday, September 19, and left on September 22, 2024. I had the opportunity to assess the pre-election day environment before the D-day last Saturday. KDI established an Election Security Early Warning System in the 18 LGA of Edo state assessing the pre-election environment to identify early warning and deployed 45 long-term security and campaign finance observers. KDI deployed 431 trained observers for last Saturday’s poll.

Last Friday, the organisation held a press conference to share thoughts on its observations and recommendations. Suffice to say that some of the projections of KDI were spot on. For instance, the organisation was on point when it predicted a high turnout of 24% and a low turnout of 20%. The turnout was 22%. It also predicted through simple weather forecasts that INEC and security agencies should prepare for rain because it might affect turnout and, at the same time, increase rejected votes.  The rain came affected turnout in some places and rejected votes increased compared with 2020. Thirdly, it prophetically predicted that the margin of lead would be low and close. KDI interventions also assisted in promoting peaceful and non-violent polls.

I have read many accounts of the election from civil society organisations, media, and political parties. I dare say it’s like an account of an elephant led by six blind men. They are all right in their observations, depending on what they were looking out for. As an accredited observer, the following things were commendable: First, the election was largely peaceful with no death recorded as against the fear of a bloodbath that was envisaged. It means the 43,000 policemen and other security agencies that were deployed worked. There was effective restriction of movement which turned out to be a double-edged sword as this may have been partially responsible for the low turnout of voters as many could not go the long distance to places where they registered.

The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System device worked optimally. Thus, cases of impersonation and multiple voting were made impossible. There was also no account of underage voting.  Poll Officials were well-trained and performed their role professionally. Sorting, counting, and announcing of results at the polling units also went well. Presiding Officers complied with the electoral guidelines and scanned the Form EC8A; Polling Units Result Sheets, using the BVAS, and uploaded the same on the INEC Result Viewing Portal. By 10 pm last Saturday, about 96 per cent of the Polling Units Results had been uploaded on IREV.  This enabled CSOs and Political Parties Situation Room to be able to do an independent tallying of results.

On the flip side, the perennial challenge of the late commencement of voting reared its ugly head. According to YIAGA Africa, one of the accredited observer groups, as of 7:30 am Poll Officials have only arrived in 41 per cent of the Polling Units. As of 8:30 am when accreditation and voting should have started, only 17 per cent of the PUs were open by that time. One hour after the official time of opening, the election had only started in only 64 per cent of the Polling Units. My experience at Agbado Primary School, Akpakpava Road in Oredo LGA of Benin City, which is a Registration Area Centre and also served as Polling Station for about 11 PUs, was that there were inadequate buses to transport Poll Workers and materials to their PUs, while there was also no security personnel on the ground to escort the vehicles.

It was at this venue that I was a guest of Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television for two hours as we ran a commentary on the opening hours of the poll from 7 – 9am. It is unclear whether INEC did not hire enough buses for election day logistics or it was the members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers that reneged on the MoU they signed with INEC to provide adequate buses.

There were reported incidences of vote buying with YIAGA Africa documenting that as much as N10,000 was paid per vote in Igueben, Akoko Edo, Esan West, Owan West, Ikpoba / Okha and Uhunmwode Local Government Areas. This is why the Labour Party candidate, Olumide Akpata SAN, said what happened last Saturday was not an election but a transaction. Unfortunately, vote buying is not a ground for the nullification of elections. There was also palpable low voter turnout with INEC putting the figure at 22.5 per cent. Factors that may have aided this included, Late commencement of polling; restriction of movement; rainfall on election day; perceived lack of dividends of democracy; rising cost of living; voting is also not mandatory but voluntary in Nigeria.

Ahead of the poll, it is disheartening that about five political parties decided to step down and endorse the APC candidate a few days before the poll. This was done in clear breach of the provision of S. 31 of the Electoral Act 2022, which makes a withdrawal from the race to be done not later than 90 days to the election. It is within the right of the Peoples Democratic Party to reject the outcome of the poll and go to the Election Petition Tribunal― that is a good thing to do rather than resort to self-help. After all, it was that act of courage that Adams Oshiomhole took in 2007 that led to his electoral victory at the court in 2008. That is why Edo State and seven other states are having their gubernatorial election on a different date from the rest.

My overall impression of the poll is that it was not a flawless and hitch-free exercise. However, it is the court that has the right to determine if the poll was held in substantial compliance with the electoral law and guidelines. Section 135. (1) says “An election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of this Act if it appears to the Election Tribunal or Court that the election was conducted substantially in accordance with the principles of this Act and that the non-compliance did not affect substantially the result of the election.”

For Senator Monday Okpebholo, the Governor-Elect of Edo State, I congratulate him and pray he will succeed in delivering dividends of democracy to his people. I do not envy him for the many political IOUs he has garnered. I pray his tenure in office shall be peaceful, prosperous, and positively impactful. Good luck!

X: @jideojong