Labour Party’s Governorship Candidate, Olumide Akpata, has blamed voters, party members and agents for his poor showing in the Edo State gubernatorial election held on Saturday.
What took place on Saturday was “not an election but a transaction,” the former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said.
Making his analysis via a statement after the poll, Akpata highlighted that although powerful forces were expected to influence the election, his real shocker came from within the electorate.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared APC candidate Monday Okpebholo as the winner, with 291,667 votes.
PDP’s Asue Ighodalo came second with 247,274 votes, and Akpata finished third with 22,763.
“We anticipated that powerful forces would attempt to skew the outcome in their favour, regardless of the will of the people,” Akpata said in his statement on Monday.
“Regrettably, these fears have materialised. Yet, we must also confront an uncomfortable truth: the outcome was enabled not just by those who sought to manipulate the process, but also by the actions—and inactions—of a significant portion of our electorate.”
Blaming APC and PDP for vote-buying, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, also slammed voters who boycotted the election of aiding the manipulation.
“Let us be clear what transpired on 21 September 2024 was not an election but a transaction. It was enabled by those who chose to stay away, making it easier for the two dominant parties to afford a significant majority of the few votes on offer and by those who came out and willingly sold their votes,” he stressed.
Akpata lamented the situation, adding, “It became painfully clear that we did not have the people, as many, including some Labour Party faithful and agents, willingly sold their future for peanuts to the very political parties whose actions and policies have impoverished them.”
