Edo Election: Oshiomhole Reveals ‘Only Disappointment’

The immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has alleged disenfranchisement of voters in his polling unit 01, Ward 10 in Uzairue northeast, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.

Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had earlier made similar allegation after voting at his his polling unit 19 in ward 04, Oredo LGA.

Oshiomhole said he was satisfied with the general process of the Edo governorship election, nothing that his “only disappointment” was that “in the whole unit, not only that the machine (card reader) is slow, the machine is not working.”

He said, “I am sure you’ve confirmed with the INEC officials. They have reported, but they have not brought a new machine. This exercise is supposed to have a closing time,” Oshiomhole told reporters at his polling unit.

“So, if they are doing this in my ward, it is clear that somebody wants to reduce the numbers of voters here.

“But I have told them to stay here whether it is 2 pm or 8 pm, once they are here, they have the right to vote.

Oshiomhole noted that, INEC has a duty to make sure that nobody comes here and is not able to vote because of INEC’s own failure.

“If they don’t rectify it, it means that they want to disenfrichise many of my community people from voting.”

He said, “This raises the issue of how much can we depend on technology, if technology can be manipulated such that people who are supposed to vote cannot vote. Before bringing the machine here, they are supposed to have tested it.”

THE WHISTLER recalls that the incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki, had also raised similar concern at his polling unit.

Obaseki had said, “I expected that INEC would have prepared better for this election. I waited for one and half hours on the queue before exercising my franchise, it’s a beat disappointing.

“Giving that this is a sole day election, I expected a better planning for this election. Card readers were very slow and that’s the situation everywhere.”