Labour Party Says No Local Government Election In Edo, Allege Thugs Cart Away Materials

By Ayodele Oni

Reactions have been trailing Saturday’s Local Government Election in Edo State as the Labour Party (LP) rejected the outcome of the polls.

Publicity Secretary of LP, Sam Uroupa, in a statement, accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of manipulating the electoral process.

“Election materials distributed to the various LGAs by Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC) were forcefully taken away at gun point in Okada, Ovia North East council areas. The electoral materials arrived Okada at about 11:00pm on Friday, 1st September, 2023.

“Eyewitness account has it that PDP thugs numbering over fifty were stationed at the entrance of the Secretariat where the materials were taken to, they started shouting and shooting sporadically to scare away all Labour Party(LP) members. We don’t want Labour Party here. It is PDP we are working for.

“The vehicles that were parked beside the hoodlums were all from Edo State Government House, suspected to have conveyed them there. As we speak, both the sensitive and non-sensitive materials are still in their custody.

“As a Party, we consider this as EDSIEC connivance with the PDP led government to hijack the process. If not why would they have to deliberately delay the distribution of materials till late in the night?

“EDSIEC should not make any attempt to announce any result already written in Government House because we are reliably informed that they delayed the distribution of the materials till night to enable the Government House plan of hijacking the process.

“In Ovia South West, it is the same thing, PDP thugs came with sporadic shooting and cart away the voting materials going to Ofunama ward, Inikorogha ward, Udo, Siloko and several other wards. In Oredo ward 7, the voters were chased away at Garrick, there were no materials brought to the place.

“As peak there is no election in the affected areas. The situation is no different in many other places.

“The entire exercise is been hijacked as there is no voting taking place in all the polling units across the the State. Edo Labour Party rejects the outcome of today’s election.”