Tuesday at the Edo State headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not just another day. It was a day of high drama as the Supervising National Chairman of the commission, Prof. Rhoda Gumas, declined to give the voters’ register to the state caretaker chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Mrs. Elizabeth Ativie.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
Citing the internal wrangling in LP, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Anugbum Onuorah, declared that he will present the register to the other party chairpersons present except for the representative of the party, which has former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr Olumide Akpata as its governorship candidate in the September 21 election.
He said: “The voters’ register will be given to representatives of all the parties present except for Labour Party. We’ll not give to the representative of Labour Party because of the leadership problem in the party at the state level. It an internal problem. We do not want to be involved. We will only give the register to the party’s candidate.”
Accompanied by his running mate, Prince Asamah Kadiri, and hordes of party support, Mr. Olumide later came after the ceremony’s close to collect the voters’ register.
According to Prof. Gumas, 2,629,025 registered voters will decide the fate of the governorship candidates of the 20 political parties scheduled to participate in the forthcoming election as against 2,501,021 who voted in the 2023 general election.
With 400,495, Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area has the highest number of registered voters, followed by Oredo with 357,371, while Igueben Local Government Area has the least with 52,000 voters.
