Edo poll: I’ll retrieve my mandate – Ighodalo
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the September 21, 2024 election, Asue Ighodalo, has expressed his absolute confidence in the ability of the judiciary as the last hope of the common man.
Ighodalo, who stated this on a television programme in Benin, on Wednesday, said the confidence in the judiciary gave him the assurance that he would retrieve and reclaim his mandate, which was stolen by the acclaimed winner.
He said notwithstanding the notion or perception of the people, as a lawyer of 40 years, his faith in the judiciary to remedy every wrong remained unshaken.
He alleged that the All Progressives Congress in the state colluded with the Nigeria Police and some compromised Independent National Electoral Commission officials to manipulate the results of the election which was in his favour and that of his party.
“Some APC chieftains, working with some compromised INEC staff and policemen, subverted the will of the people.
“They are enemies of democracy in Nigeria. I will use every lawful and legitimate means to retrieve and reclaim the mandate from those who shamelessly stole it,” he said.
When asked if he would accept the verdict of the court if it goes contrary to his expectations, he said if, in the end, the Supreme Court in the land feels otherwise, he would abide by it.
He, however, stressed that from the evidence he had gathered and the experience of the members of his legal team, he was sure to win the case in court.
He said his victory in cases that followed his nomination as the candidate of the PDP gave him the basis to hope he would get justice at the tribunal.
He said, “I won all the 15 cases that were brought against me from the primary election. So, I cannot say I don’t have faith in the judiciary. I certainly do. It remains the last hope of the common man.”
He condemned the harassment and arrest of the PDP supporters through spurious allegations before and during the election.
Narrating his experience during the material inspection, he condemned the INEC’s show of undue sympathy to the APC when the PDP had a legitimate court order to be allowed to inspect materials needed to aid the filing of his petition.
He said election observers scored the collation low, noting that the evidence that he won the election was incontrovertible.
Ighodalo dismissed the insinuations that the PDP lost the election because of infighting within the party, saying the argument was an afterthought by APC apologists to justify the electoral heist that took place on September 21 in Edo State.
He added, “Do you congratulate a thief who has come to your house and stole your goods? It is all propaganda. Did you not hear or read that I was getting ready to run for Senate? They are the worst form of propagandists in this country. Some of them even talk before thinking.”
Ighodalo warned that if the kind of electoral heist just witnessed in Edo continued, democracy would go into extinction.
He thanked the people of Edo for standing by him and urged them not to allow themselves to be provoked by the antics of those who do not mean well to them.
