Investment banker and founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc Atedo Peterside, said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has turned rogue since conducting the 2023 presidential election.
Mr. Peterside who was speaking on the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election in an interview on Arise TV, said INEC failed to conduct a credible election in Edo State. INEC declared the All-Progressives Congress candidate Monday Okpebholo winner of the election which was marred by violence and rigging. Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who got 247,274 votes. Olumide Akpata, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), came a third with 22,763 votes.
“I think I’ve already gone public, in the sense of after they Edo election. I put out a tweet. I went on to INEC IREV when I heard all the complaints from people who were on the field in Edo,” Mr. Peterside said.
“I checked the results sheets hoping that I would conclude people were just making noise over nothing. Unfortunately, some of the results I saw there shocked me.
“In an election there was an average turnout 22% of the roundabout, one particular political party and I’m sure we can all guess which one — was achieving a 98.5% turnout and results in some polling booths.
“In some polling booths, the total number of votes that same political party got was larger than the total number of voters that were accredited.
“I don’t waste my time blaming political parties. They are not the referee; they are not the umpire. We must hold INEC culpable. I got my data from INEC.
“I’ve already said that INEC did very well in Osun State; all the results are still there on INEC IReV. However, since the presidential election, they started playing these funny games, and I can even tell you what the game is.
“Once voting ends, results are uploaded, but glitches occur when the favoured party isn’t doing well. Uploads stop, disappear for hours, then resurface with altered results sheets, changing the equation, as seen in Edo.”
