The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has pleaded for forgiveness by the people of Edo State for not being able to retrieve what they described as the mandate given to them in the Saturday, September 21, 2024 guber poll in the state.
Speaking during the stakeholders meeting of the party leaders on Monday afternoon, Tony Aziegbemi, the Chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee in Edo State, asserted: “Edo.people forgive us for not being able to retrieve your mandate. We tried all we could do but we couldn’t.”
Addressing the gathering, Aziegbemi said: “Edo people know who they voted for. Edo people know that the elected governor of the state is Asue Ighodalo. They stole from us.
“By 8.30pm on the day of the election APC leaders were calling me, congratulating me for having won the election because they were seeing what all of us were seeing on the IRep. And then the manipulation started at about 9.00pm.
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“They stole from us. They stole our mandate. And because we’re law abiding we said lets pursue this thing legally. Our lawyers were fantastic. They dug up all the documents that needed to be dug up.
“And we thought that the judiciary that’s supposed to be the last hope of the common man… we lay before them a very precise and concise petition. What did they do? They were now sounding on illegalities ‘You didn’t call witnesses’ ‘we’re not an investigative team’ etc.
“Forgetting that there’s an article in the electoral act that says if a document speaks for itself you don’t need to call any witness to speak to it. They forgot that. We’re here to tell you that on your behalf, the candidate, the deputy governorship candidate and the party, we did all we ought to do to retrieve our mandate.
“Unfortunately, the collusion between the Presidency, INEC, security agencies and the Judiciary was a hurdle we could not surmount. Today, I come to report to you, please Edo people forgive us for not being able to retrieve your mandate. We tried all we could do but we couldn’t.”
Picking up the story from there, Asue Ighodalo, the party’s flagbearer at the poll, thanked Edo people for the massive support they gave him whereby they voted for him overwhelmingly on the election day not minding the odds stacked up against him.”
