Kelly Ogbalo, chairman of the Labour Party (LP) in Edo, says the party candidate, Olumide Akpata, would have won the state governorship election if it was conducted in a free and fair manner.

In an interview on Monday in Benin, Mr Ogbalo claimed that the election was marred by serious irregularities, including open vote-buying that the security agencies failed to check.

“Labour Party won the election but was not allowed to take possession,” Mr Ogbalo alleged. “What I mean by that is that the election was marred with serious irregularities; there was open vote buying. The security agencies failed to check this anomaly.”

“So in such a way where votes were bought and with manipulation of results here and there. What do you expect?”

When asked if LP would challenge the result in court, Mr Ogbalo said the party was yet to call a state council meeting to take a position.

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on September 22 declared Monday Okpebholo of the APC winner of the election.

Mr Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 247,274 votes, while LP’s Mr Akpata, came third with 22,763 votes.

(NAN)