In the early hours of Sunday, a tense confrontation took place at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin, Edo State, between Governor Godwin Obaseki and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The altercation, which occurred during the final collation of results for the governorship election, almost disrupted the electoral process.<\/p>\n
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The incident began when Governor Obaseki, accompanied by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Asue Ighodalo and other supporters, arrived at the INEC office at 12:47 a.m. The governor led a protest, alleging irregularities in the collation process. Obaseki went inside to meet with INEC officials, while Ighodalo and the rest remained outside.<\/p>\n
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Speaking to journalists at the scene, Osarodion Ogie, Ighodalo\u2019s running mate, expressed concerns, accusing INEC of failing to follow proper guidelines. “It is essential that the electoral umpire complies with the established rules for fairness in this election,” Ogie said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two hours into the situation, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Frank Mbah arrived at the INEC office and joined the meeting inside. By 3:27 a.m., APC deputy governorship candidate Dennis Idahosa, along with APC National Secretary Bashiru Ajibola and supporters, also arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Idahosa, visibly frustrated, demanded that Obaseki leave the premises, shouting, “Obaseki, come outside! You have no business inside the INEC office.” Eventually, the police allowed the APC members into the building to join the ongoing discussions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After about an hour, Governor Obaseki exited the INEC office without addressing the press. However, Ajibola expressed his dissatisfaction with the governor\u2019s presence, describing it as inappropriate. “This is nothing short of thuggery. Governor Obaseki had no business being at the INEC office while collation was ongoing,” Ajibola stated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Due to the altercation, INEC postponed the final collation of results until 11 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the early hours of Sunday, a tense confrontation took place at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin, Edo State, between Governor Godwin Obaseki and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The altercation, which occurred during the final collation of results for the governorship election, almost disrupted the electoral process. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":49384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49385,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49383\/revisions\/49385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}