The Patriotism Awareness Forum (PAF) has condemned the shameful, embarrassing and described as threat to democracy and national security the conduct of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum over the just concluded Edo State gubernatorial election.

The group described it as “shame and embarrassment” the manner PDP Governors unleashed on “our democracy and Nigeria by announcing a fake and concocted election result” against the law and the peaceful and successfully-conducted 2024 Edo State gubernatorial election.

In a release, signed by the Convener Nelson Ekujumi and the Co-Convener Peter Claver Oparah, the civil society group said the “desperate resort to self-help by the PDP Governors Forum is a disgraceful low the party has descended to because it cannot manage the outcome of an electoral conduct they found out didn’t favour their party and candidate.”

The group said that it is particularly disappointing and shameful that the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmed Fintiri who was rescued from similar violation of the electoral process in the 2023 general election, is the mouthpiece of the present show of shame and electoral crime by PDP governors.

“The Electoral Law vests the authority to conduct elections and declare election results on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and no other person, group or authority else. The laws are clear on the validity of election results as well as the means to seek justice in cases of electoral infractions and it also outlaws such act of brigandage and gangsterism, which the PDP has resorted to in the Edo governorship election.

“The same Electoral Law is clear on the process for declaring election results and it is quite embarrassing and shameful that Gov. Fintiri who is a recent beneficiary of an insistence of such process of strict obedience to the rule of law, should be the spokesman of the PDP governors in that show of shame.

“In every election, there is always a winner and a loser. We wonder what made PDP and its governors believe that every election must favour them or else they forge their own results, as they did in the 2024 Edo State gubernatorial election. It is such desperation and utter selfishness that led PDP governors to embark on such voyage in Tomfoolery as to concoct a fraudulent result and proceed to violate the laws of the land and the electoral process by announcing a fake result as the outcome of a validly and creditably conducted election by INEC.

“We know that in resorting to such extreme acts of desperation and lawlessness, the PDP and its governors want to provoke violence and a breakdown of law and order just for their narrow and selfish political interests. We warn that such portends grave danger for not only our democracy but to national security. PAF sees the shameful and irresponsible conduct of PDP Governors Forum as a threat to democracy and it stands condemned. We must warn that the country cannot tolerate such acts of electoral brigandage meant to cause mayhem and sabotage our democracy.

“Therefore, We call on the country’s security agencies to investigate the electoral crime of announcing a fake result by the PDP Governors Forum and ensure such deliberate act of electoral brigandage against the country’s democratic process is duly prosecuted to serve as a deterrence to others who might be thinking of indulging in such heinous infraction of the electoral process to serve their dangerous and selfish political interests”.