The National Rescue Movement (NRM), Edo State chapter, on Thursday besieged the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to protest the omission of its governorship candidate’s name, Dennis Osahon Aikoriogie in the list of those participating in the September 21 governorship election in the state.

The party conveyed its protest in a letter titled “Protest on non inclusion of our gubernatorial candidate in the forthcoming Edo State governorship election coming up in September 2024", signed by its chairman, Sam Arase and its secretary, Asemota Solomon.

It noted the surprise of its members that the name of its governorship candidate, having duly participated in the primary, supervised by INEC, was not among the list published by the commission.

Arase said that the party wants the INEC to include its governorship candidate’s name so that they can get prepared for the forthcoming election. 

Responding, the Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity, INEC, Timidi Wariowe, admitted that the commission did publish the names of the candidates and their personal particulars, on the 30th of March.

He said that the reason the name of the NRM and its governorship candidate did not appear was because the party's National Working Committee failed to send the candidate's name, the time for the primary and the venue for the primary to INEC headquarters in Abuja as required by law.

He added that Edo INEC cannot monitor a primary or accept letters being sent by the state office since primaries are conducted by the National Working Committee of a party and correspondences are received from the National Working Committee of the party and it is done via INEC headquarters to the state office.

According to him, those who supposedly monitor the primaries of the NRM in Edo state did that on their own without getting directive form the Resident Electoral Commissioner and also from INEC headquarters.