Some of my supporters sold their votes – Guber Candidate during Edo election laments
Olumide Akpata, the Labour Party governorship candidate in the recently concluded Edo State election, has alleged that members of his party sold their votes to rival political parties.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of Saturday’s election, with Okpebholo securing 291,667 votes.
He defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asue Ighodalo, who garnered 247,274 votes.
Akpata trailed behind in third place with 22,763 votes.
In an interview with Channels TV, Akpata attributed his poor performance to widespread vote-buying, noting that some of his supporters and even Labour Party members sold their votes due to poverty.
Describing the situation as tragic, he said it was a sobering lesson about the impact of financial incentives in elections.
He said: “Some of my supporters stayed at home but a large number of them sold their votes.
“What happened was a tragedy. Let us remove focus from Akpata and the Labour Party and interrogate our electoral process.
“Members of my party sold their votes. It is something that we must look into closely. They decided to go for cash. That was a big lesson to learn. I meant that if you think you know the people, you have to think again and look inward”.
