Osita Chidoka Exposes INEC’s Election Rigging, Quits PDP
With former Aviation Minister Osita Chidoka accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of orchestrating a complex plot to rig the election in favor of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the aftermath from the September 21 Edo governorship election has taken a sharp turn. Chidoka called the election “a sham” in an interview with Politics and presented evidence that he says demonstrates extensive manipulation carried out at the top levels of INEC.
Chidoka exposed startling disparities in the election results, claiming that INEC had overstated the number of eligible voters in 798 polling places.
“Presiding officers recorded 580,000 accredited voters, yet INEC’s backend magically produced 687,000. This wasn’t an accident; it was deliberate tampering,” he said. According to him, PDP votes were slashed by 11,665 during collation, while 32,284 votes were illegally added to APC’s tally.
Even more damning, Chidoka said, were the inconsistencies between INEC’s certified results and the data uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV). “Someone at INEC printed fake result sheets and wrote the outcome they wanted. This isn’t just incompetence; it’s fraud on a massive scale,” he declared.
The former minister claimed that when invalid votes and manipulations were removed, PDP candidate Barr. Asue Ighodalo emerged as the rightful winner. However, he refused to officially recognize the result, citing the sheer scale of rigging. “What happened in Edo wasn’t an election—it was a travesty. If this stands, there’s no point in having elections in 2027.”
In a dramatic twist, Chidoka announced his resignation from the PDP, saying he wants to focus fully on fighting for electoral reform without being tied to partisan politics. “Nothing else is as important to me right now as the defense of our democracy,” he stated.
Chidoka’s revelations have sparked outrage and intensified calls for the judiciary to intervene. “The courts must act. INEC has betrayed public trust, and our democracy is on life support,” he warned. The question now is whether Nigeria’s judiciary will step in to salvage the integrity of the electoral process—or allow this “stolen election” to stand.
