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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared its governorship primary election in Edo State was “not completed.”
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Barr Felix Morka, announced the party’s position on the contentious primary in a statement issued late Tuesday night.
He said a new primary would be held on Thursday to determine its flagbearer for the September 2024 governorship election in the state.
“At its emergency meeting held today, Tuesday, February 20, 2024, to consider the report on the Edo State governorship primary election, the national working committee (NWC) deliberated on the report and resolved that the Edo State governorship primary election has not been completed, and has now fixed Thursday, February 22, 2024, for the completion of the primary election process,” the statement read.
Recall that three people are laying claim to victory in the primary election conducted on Saturday.
Imo State Governor and chairman of Edo primary election committee, Sen Hope Uzodimma, had on Saturday declared Dennis Idahosa, a member of the House of Representatives, as the winner of the election.
Uzodimma said the 43-year-old Idahosa polled 40,483 votes to defeat other governorship hopefuls in the race.
Few hours after Uzodimma’s declaration of Idahosa as the winner, the Returning Officer for the election, Stanley Ugboaja, who spoke on behalf of the returning officers in the various local government areas in the state, declared Monday Okpebholo, Senator representing Edo Central as the winner of the election, adding that he defeated Idahosa with over 6,000 votes.
On Monday, the controversy over the primary assumed another dimension as a chieftain of the party, Ojo Babatunde, announced a lawmaker representing Etsako Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Sunday Dekiri, winner of the election.
Following the controversy surrounding the primary election, a group known as the All Progressives Congress (APC) Stakeholders Forum alleged that Idahosa was declared the winner before the conclusion of the exercise.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Emmanuel Godwin, coordinator of the group, said: “We have been inundated with news that a particular candidate was announced yesterday by His Excellency, Hope Uzodimma who incidentally is the chairman of the primary election committee, Edo State.
“It is unfortunate that Hope Uzodimma who is not the returning officer in whatever capacity assumed the position and went ahead to announce Dennis Idahosa when the returning officers were still collating the results.
“We wish to therefore state categorically that the purported announcement is null and void and it should be disregarded in its entirety. Governor Uzodimma lacks the power to usurp duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo State primaries.”
Prior to the election, three aspirants had announced their withdrawal from the race.
The candidate of the party in the 2020 election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, was the first to pull out, saying his decision, although painful, was in the interest of peace and unity of the party.
On election day, former deputy governor of the state, Lucky Imasuen, and Ernest Afolabi withdrew from the contest, citing the party’s decision to zone the ticket to the central senatorial district of the state.
The ruling party had screened and cleared Idahosa and 11 other governorship candidates to contest in the primary.