{"id":174336,"date":"2025-08-14T21:28:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec"},"modified":"2025-08-14T22:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:46:14","slug":"edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec","title":{"rendered":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure a free, fair, and credible exercise.<\/p>\n<p>The CSO also alleged that there is a plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state to undermine the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n<p>The Coalition of Observers group in Nigeria, led by Simon Diogu, made this known in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>He urged President Bola Tinubu to resist the temptation not to militarise the process and urged the Nigeria Police to be professional in the discharge of their duties before, during, and after the elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Edo State heads to the polls on August 16, 2025, for the Edo Central Senatorial District and Ovia Federal Constituency bye-elections, the Coalition of Observer Groups in Nigeria expresses deep concern over credible reports that threaten the credibility of the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have received worrying indications that similar tactics may be deployed in the upcoming bye-elections, with fears that results could be predetermined through the unlawful preparation of duplicate result sheets before collation begins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe note that Edo Central Senatorial District is the home constituency of the sitting governor. In light of this, we call on the governor to publicly condemn reported threats made by his supporters against opposition parties and their candidates and to, in his capacity as Chief Security Officer of the state, commit to ensuring that the elections are peaceful, violence-free, and conducted in strict adherence to the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny democracy is only as strong as the confidence reposed in it by its citizens. INEC has both a legal and moral obligation to ensure that the will of the people is not subverted by acts of manipulation or intimidation. \u201cThe commission must take urgent, visible steps to guarantee that collation is open, verifiable, and protected from interference,\u201d the statement partly reads. \u2018<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure a free, fair, and credible exercise. The CSO also alleged that there is a plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state to undermine the outcome of the election. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":174335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[12622,3211,443,251,254],"class_list":["post-174336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-bye-elections","tag-cso","tag-edo","tag-inec","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Co ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Co ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-14T20:28:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-14T21:46:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-14T20:28:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-14T21:46:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\"},\"wordCount\":331,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bye-elections\",\"cso\",\"Edo\",\"INEC\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\",\"name\":\"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-14T20:28:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-14T21:46:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Co ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC - Nigeria","description":"Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Co ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC","og_description":"Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Co ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2025-08-14T20:28:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-14T21:46:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC","datePublished":"2025-08-14T20:28:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-14T21:46:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec"},"wordCount":331,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg","keywords":["bye-elections","cso","Edo","INEC","Nigeria"],"articleSection":["all news","Policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec","name":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-14T20:28:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-14T21:46:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Ahead of Saturday\u2019s August 16th Edo bye-election, a civil society group has warned the Independent National Electoral Co ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1755195519.773583.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/edo-bye-elections-dont-dare-rig-polls-cso-warns-inec#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Edo Bye-elections: Don\u2019t dare rig polls \u2013 CSO warns INEC"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}