The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) women, fully dressed in black attire, on Tuesday stormed the streets of Benin City, capital of Edo State in their thousands to protest and express their dissatisfaction with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the conduct of the 21 September governorship election in the state.
They said that PDP candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo was “brazenly and unconscionably robbed of victory”. According to them, the mandate, freely given to the PDP candidate, was stolen by the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the active collaboration of INEC and the Nigeria Police, who, they said, completely “abandoned their sacred duty of protecting lives and property and openly resorted to intimidating and indiscriminate arrest of PDP supporters and other voters before, during and after the election”.
The protesters were armed with placards conveying sundry messages such as. ‘Dr. Ighodalo, The Governor-Elect We Know’, ‘INEC, Sack Edo Resident Electoral Commissioner’, ‘INEC, Give Us Our Mandate Back’, ‘Edo PDP Won The Election But INEC and Police Colluded To Change It’, as means of delivering their messages as the chant solidarity songs.
Two of their leaders – Edo South PDP women leader, Mrs Pat Erhabor; and Esan Central Women Leader, Hon. Stella Okoro, who spoke on behalf of the protesting women at the premises of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ), said they were at the press centre to express their dissatisfaction and pain over the manner the mandate, freely given to Ighodalo, “was stolen by the APC with the connivance of the police”.
“We are mourning . The lions and tigers have come out to take what does not belong to them. We are calling on the INEC and the security agents they used in subverting the will of the people to allow us to reclaim our mandate . Despite all the intimidation Edo people overwhelmingly voted for Asue Ighodalo”, they said.
They argued that, having laboured to campaign round the 18 Local Government Areas and the “people responded by voting Ighodalo massively, it pains them to the marrow to see INEC and the police forcefully, brazenly and shamelessly transfer their victory to another person by manipulating the electoral process to the point of viciously sideling INEC guidelines and regulations”.
The Secretary of the state chapter of the NUJ, Comrade Andy Egbon, who addressed the protesters on behalf of the council, assured them of giving wide publicity to their message to reach every part of the world.
He advised them to go about the protest peacefully so that miscreants would not hijack it.
The protesters, then moved to the Ring Road axis of the city where they stormed the State House of Assembly.
They were received by the Majority Leader, Hon. Charity Iguodala Aiguobarueghian, who stood in for the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Blessing Agbebaku.
Aiguobarueghian praised the mature manner the women adopted in ventilating their grievances and the manner in which they conducted themselves. He assured them that the Housewas with them.
He however charged them to be watchful so that “lions and tigers” in the state would not hijack the protest and use it as an opportunity to destroy the legacies and achievements of their “beloved son”, Governor Godwin Obaseki.
He assured that they have their right to protest because nobody beats a child and asks him not to cry. He stated that he would deliver their message to the Speaker and take it to the rightful quarters.