Yiaga Africa insists Edo Guber Result was manipulated
Yiaga
Africa, one of the accredited observers of Saturday’s off-cycle governorship
election in Edo State, has said the poll failed integrity test, as there was
widespread manipulation of results.
This
is contained in the post-election statement of the organisation on the
governorship election, co-signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo
Election Mission, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director, Yiaga Africa.
Yiaga
Africa said it deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency
(PRVT) methodology for the election, involving 300 stationary and 25 roving
observers, covering a representative sample of polling units (PUs) across all
18 LGAs, and found lapses.
“The
PRVT enables Yiaga Africa to independently assess the quality of Election Day
processes and verify the accuracy of the official election results as announced
by INEC. Yiaga Africa observers also deployed to the State and LGA results
collation centers to observe the process, ensuring timely and accurate
reporting of the election process.
“Yiaga
Africa has successfully deployed this methodology in two Presidential elections
and 16 off-cycle governorship elections… while there were some level of
compliance in areas of material deployment and other processes, 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 PUs, Yiaga Africa can project the expected
vote shares for each party within a narrow margin. However, Yiaga Africa 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 have been manipulated.
“According
to INEC, the APC received 51.1% of the votes, PDP 43.3% of the votes, and the
LP garnered 4.0% of the votes. Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%) sampled
PUs, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official
results announced by INEC.