Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State has responded to a former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, who claimed that the 2024 Edo State governorship election was rigged to favor the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to Chidoka, his organization, Athena Centre, reviewed the election and found substantial evidence of systemic rigging, concluding that the results should not stand. He stated, “The evidence of systemic rigging is so substantial that we cannot call the results. The evidence is so substantial that we think that this election should not be allowed to stand. If this stands, then there is no election in 2027.”
However, Okpebholo’s Chief Press Secretary, Fred Itua, fired back with a statement that Chidoka, in connivance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was trying to bully and blackmail the judiciary into overturning the results. Itua claimed that Athena Centre did not cover the election in substantial parts of the state and instead sat in the Government House under the supervision of ex-Governor Godwin Obaseki to concoct and orchestrate figures and numbers.
Itua continued, saying that the PDP was “blind to the glaring reality that the party was spurned by Edo people in the last governorship election because of their weakness, as own enemies. Overlooking its messy and divided house, the party is shopping for non-existent evidence to upturn the popular will of the people, at the Tribunal. What exactly is the intention and or benefit of orchestrating a media trial, as Mr. Chidoka has done? It amounts to deliberate ambush.”
He also claimed that the PDP was resorting to “concoctions, prevarication, sentiments, red-herrings, contradictions, and orchestrations” to discredit the election, which was conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Okpebholo’s administration is focused on verifying assets, recovering stolen cars, and probing financial heists orchestrated by the previous administration. Okpebholo vowed to not be blackmailed by media propaganda and to recover every dime or asset stolen by officials of the Obaseki administration. He also promised to expose those involved in the financial heist and abuse of power, stating, “Anyone who runs foul of the law will face the full wrath of the law. Moles and saboteurs planted in different ministries, departments, and agencies of government by Obaseki and his cohorts, will soon be exposed; and nothing will stop Governor Monday Okpebholo from standing on the side of truth, fairness, integrity, and progress.”
