A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, has knocked the recently concluded Edo guber poll won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Monday Okpebholo, saying that the exercise was marred by alleged irregularities and, therefore, a litmus test of what Nigerians should expect in the 2027 general election unless the country embarked on an electoral reform before then.
Pearse, a Public Affairs Analyst and Convener, Reset Lagos PDP, gave this stand in his reaction while speaking with newsmen, even as he noted that his party won last Saturday’s poll but was robbed of the victory through alleged manipulation and intimidation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in collaboration with some security agents.
Pearse, who is also a member of the PDP National Presidential Campaign Council (2023), while corroborating his party, equally said that the actual result of the Edo guber poll does not show that APC won the election, adding, “So it is up for litigation; a lot of questions are attributed, attached to this election.”
“The election is suspected to be marred by irregularities and corrupt INEC officials and police officials. Before the election, you saw what happened in preparing for the election.
“According to some social media publications, which may be true or may not be true, the results posted on the INEC server clearly show that the PDP won the election, and then INEC announced something else that APC won the election. “So it is up for litigation. A lot of questions are attributed, attached to this election.
“The PDP National Publicity Secretary has issued a press release, saying that they don’t accept the result as announced by INEC. INEC has no credibility anyway, so everything surrounding the election is suspicious, that everything is geared towards making sure that APC won the election, but the actual result does not show that APC won the election,” he said.
The PDP chieftain, however, said that for the 2027 general election to be credible, there must be a reform of the electoral system before then to ensure that the president was not put in charge of appointing the INEC chairman and other officers of the commission, pointing out that the president should be allowed not to be in charge of local government funds and structures across the country; otherwise, “everything is set for this for the coming election to be rigged.”
“There has to be electoral reform before the 2027 general election because if it is the president that is going to appoint the INEC chairman, appoint all the INEC commissioners, and also control the funds of the local government structures across the country, everything is set for this for the coming election to be rigged. So we will fight on these things until election day,” he said.
On the possibility of getting favourable judgement from the judiciary, Pearse expressed doubt, saying that the system being run in the country “is corrupt from bottom to top.”
He, however, maintained that the main opposition PDP would not keep quiet and fold its arms but would “continue to expose the corruption and the irregularities involved in our election.”
“We are not sure of getting the proper judgement because our system is corrupt from bottom to top; INEC is corrupted, the judiciary is corrupted, the police are corrupted, and the security system is corrupted, so what do we do? That is Nigeria for you now.
“Very difficult for us to have a credible election because this election was certainly not open, not fair, and, therefore, totally not credible.
“The election in Edo was a test case on how they will win the 2027 election by hook or crook,” Pearse said.
“What we will do in the PDP is to continue to expose the corruption and the irregularities involved in our election, and we will go to court and let the court shoot itself in the foot; let everybody see that the PDP won the election,” he added.
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