Edo PDP approaches election tribunal over election
…Carpets police over alleged payment for bail of arrested members
By Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN CITY – THE Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday said it has filed a petition to challenge the outcome of the=21 September governorship election in the state which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The State chairman of the party, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, disclosed this while addressing a section of the press at the party’s secretariat where he also carpeted the police for allegedly collecting a cumulative sum of N64 million for the release of its members arrested in the wake of the violence that erupted along Airport Road in July that led to the death of a policeman.
He also claimed that there were plans to arrest another set of its members apparently to demoralize the party from pursuing its mandate reclamation cause in the court just as he accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police of colluding with the APC to claim victory in the election.
He said: “We have filed our petition before the Election Tribunal on your behalf. I assure you that the journey to reclaim our mandate has begun and by the grace of God, your mandate will be returned.
“In spite of INEC’s feeble attempt to deny us full complements of our request for CTC of all electoral materials, being the political wing of the APC, we were still able to do the needful.”
The State PDP chairman also denied that the party disrupted the inspection of electoral materials at the INEC office, even when they needed the materials to support their petition.
“That PDP is disrupting the inspection of materials at the INEC Office. In whose interest is the disruption? We applied to the court for inspection and the court granted us an enrolled order to inspect. Why would we want to disrupt the process?” he queried.
Aziegbemi who disclosed that more of their members have been arrested after the election, added that those arrested over the killing of Inspector Akor Onu, alleged that the “police have shamelessly released our members after collecting cumulatively about 64m Naira ostensibly for bail, but we are told that bail is free.
“How low can the police go under this patently biased IGP heading the armed wing of the APC.”
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