It was a game of intrigues between the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, (APC) at the Benin City, Edo State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) on Wednesday as counsels to both parties clashed over which election materials should be inspected first – the voters’ register or the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the highly disputed September 21 governorship election.
While the PDP which first secured a court order to inspect the election materials wanted to start with the BVAS, the APC’s counsel insisted on starting with the voters’ register which he said was in line with the order of court. The APC took the position because it was convinced the name of the PDP’s candidate, Asue Ighodalo was not on the register given to it by INEC.
Counsel to the APC, Victor Ohionsumua, told journalists, “You are aware that there is a court order granted exparte to the PDP for inspection of materials. We were also proactive in APC and also filed for inspection of materials and that was granted on the 7th of October 2024.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), they invited us here that they were going to start inspection of materials today (Wednesday) by 10am. Our legal team came here, and we were served with a schedule. Just few minutes after that, the PDP legal team said that they wanted to start with BVAS.
“We drew the INEC officers’ attention to the order obtained by the PDP, that says that inspection of materials should start with the Voters’ Register. So, which order are they complying with when they now said we should start with BVAS machines?
“So, INEC looked at the order and found out that our objection had merit and said on the basis of that, we should start the inspection with voters’ register. Unfortunately, because we were not carried along with the preparation of the schedule, we didn’t come here (INEC office) today (Wednesday) with our own voters’ register.
“We cannot be inspecting voters’ register when there is no other register that we have to do some comparison. So, we now applied that in view of the fact that the time had gone, and we don’t have our voters’ register with us, we should adjourn the inspection to tomorrow (Thursday).
“Our application for adjournment was upheld and we will be back here 10 am tomorrow (Thursday) and the political parties, about seven of them, all agreed that we should come back tomorrow. So, we are going to reconvene at INEC tomorrow morning.”
Acting chairman of the APC, Jarrett Tenebe, said the reason why voters register was an issue was because the name of the PDP candidate in the election, Asue Ighodalo, was not in the register.
Tenebe said “You are aware that the case between PDP and APC that is still in the Supreme Court has to do with the status of candidate of PDP as a registered member of the party in the state, and that is the reason the voters’ register is an issue. In the register INEC gave to us before the election, we thoroughly looked at it and discovered that it does not have Asue Ighodalo.
“That is the reason why we want to look at the register they (the PDP) want to give to us critically to ensure that we are not inspecting fake register. So, that is the issue on ground now. We are going to come with all the registers they gave to us tomorrow, to compare with the ones they are bringing”.
Reacting to the development, the Director General of the Asue/Ogie Campaign Management Council, Mathew Iduoriyekemwen, said it was clear that INEC was delaying the process of material inspection because the filling of the case was time-bound.
Iduoriyekemwen said, “It is clear that INEC is delaying this process because the filling of the case at the tribunal is time-bound. We have got an injunction to allow our lawyers to inspect the materials, but they have not been able to do so for two days despite going to INEC for that purpose.
“What INEC did today (Wednesday) was to call lawyers of both parties, and the APC arrived the venue with a lot of thugs. This is not the first time materials were being inspected so I don’t know why this one is different.
“We are going there tomorrow. (Thursday) I will be there personally, so, let us see if anyone will stop us from making sure that INEC complies with that court order. We are either democratic or not. If we are in a dictatorship, they should let us know that is what we are practicing.”
At the INEC office, members of the APC assembled opposite the building, singing and praising the governor-elect, Senator Monday Okpebholo.
The PDP supporters converged at the Ramat Park to avoid a clash, while policemen were stationed around the office. A red tape was also used to barricade the building to keep off those who had business in the office.