A top government official in Edo State has been making moves to manipulate the electoral process of the Edo State Football Association elections fixed for today in Benin City.

The elections which was earlier fixed for last Saturday was shifted to today by the order of the said official.

Ilaboya

Our investigation revealed that the highly ranked government official was not comfortable with one of the top chairmanship aspirants, whom he accused of working against him in the last A PC primaries.

Only yesterday, the Sports Commissioner invited the voting delegates to his office to press home the message of the influential official who insisted they must vote for the preferred candidate.

Our findings revealed that the meeting with the Commissioner and the involvement of the said official who vowed that “over his dead body” will one of the candidates get the post, has put fears into the system and the possibility of free and fair elections will not be guaranteed.

Briefing the press yesterday in Benin, Frank Ilaboya, the out- going vice chairman of the FA, who is widely tipped to win, said the involvement of the government official in the electoral system is regrettable.

He said: “ Yes, it is true that the SSG and I had a political misunderstanding during the last December APC Primaries, that should not be brought to a football election that has nothing to do with politics.

“My appeal to the electorates is to vote for football and not politics. Edo football has suffered enough and this is time for revival.”

Mr. Ilaboya also used the well attended briefing to share with audience how he will revive the football fortunes of the state if elected.

“I promise to run an all inclusive government where the stakeholders will be actively involved. We will come up with a blue print within 30days of election and all the stakeholders will be involved in this process.”

Three contestants are in the race for the chairmanship position.