Olumide Akpata: Some LP members sold their votes during Edo guber — poverty beclouded reasoning

• Earlier, the LP candidate had said the poll in the state “was not an election but a transaction”.
• He alleged widespread vote-buying by the PDP and APC during the election

Olumide Akpata, the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the Edo governorship election, has alleged that some members of the party sold their votes during the state’s gubernatorial poll.

Farouk Adamu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returning officer for the election, had declared Monday Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the vote.

Okpebholo garnered 291,667 votes to defeat his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 247,655 votes.

Akpata secured  22, 763 votes.

Speaking on Wednesday during an interview with Channels Television, Akpata said widespread poverty beclouded voters’ reasoning.

The LP candidate was fielding questions about his emotional response to the defeat he suffered during the election.

“Nigeria happens to you, so I’m old enough to understand my country, nothing shocks me in Nigeria, save for, let me say that I was slightly taken aback by the reaction of the people,” he said.

“I am not saying we won the election. I am saying that there was no election, there was a transaction.

“So, it’s very difficult to now say who would have won or who would have lost. 300,000 votes by our estimation were bought by the two parties actively participating in that bazaar.

“Some stayed at home, but a large number came out and sold their votes. That’s the point I’m making to you. What happened was a tragedy. Let us remove focus from Olu Akpata and the labour Party and interrogate our electoral process.

“Let me tell you, members of my party sold their votes. It is something that we must look into closely. So, Papa, Mama, the pikin, we were not sure of the process, but we had more confidence in the people.

“The people decided to go for freshly minted cash that was on offer. So, for me, that was a lesson, that was a big lesson to learn. — If you think that you know the people, you have to think again and you have to look inwards.

“The level of deprivation, poverty in the land has made it such that the people are unable to connect the dots between their current situation and those who are the cause of their situation.

“I’m not making any excuses for the people. I understand. I empathize. However, the facts remain the facts. This is the scenario.”