Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki on Sunday said that he was not thrown out of INEC Benin Election Collation Centre, around 1 am, contrary to reports that policemen walked him out of the Commission’s Collation Centre in the early hours of Sunday.
Explaining his reason for going to INEC centre at that time of the morning the governor said, “At about 1 am, I got a report that collation was supposed to have been moved to the INEC head office. I also got reports from our agents that PDP agents were not allowed into the collation centre. At that point in time, I called the REC to find an explanation of what was going on. There was no response.
“Then I went to the INEC office to meet with the REC and to understand what steps INEC was taken to continue the process of collation. When I got in there at about 2:00 am, I did not see any coalition taking place and the REC refused to come out to explain what the situation was.
“Subsequently, the DIG Police Frank Mba came in and had a meeting with me where I explained that if INEC was postponing or stopped the collation process, then as part of their rules, they should inform the public as to what next.
“As of 3:00 a.m., there was no information from INEC as to what was going to what was going on or what was going to happen next. It was subsequently after my insistence and meeting with Mr Frank Mba that INEC now released a statement at about 5:00a.m this morning informing the public that the collation process would start at 10 a.m. this morning.
“So, my going there was essentially to obtain information from INEC because they had refused to put any information in the public domain as to what was going to happen with the collation process.”
Obaseki explained this while speaking with journalists at the Peoples Democratic Party Situation Room in Benin.
