Barely 24 hours after Senator Monday Okpebholo was declared winner of the All Progressives Congress governorship primary in Edo State, one of the 11 aspirants that lost out, Dennis Idahosa, on Saturday, stormed the national headquarters of the party to demand justice.
Idahosa, who arrived at the party secretariat at about 2.30 pm accompanied by a horde of his supporters, described Thursday’s re-run election as a ‘selection’ and not an ‘electoral’ process as the ruling party wanted the world to believe.
The Edo federal lawmaker was one of the three winners that emerged from the controversial February 17, which was subsequently declared inconclusive.
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, who was the then chairman of the primary election committee, had announced Idahosa as the winner, while the returning officer, Stanley Ugboaja, declared Okpebholo as the winner.
Elsewhere, a certain Ojo Babatunde, who claimed to be representing the returning officers in all the local governments also declared Anamero Dekeri as the winner of the election.
Addressing newsmen at the main gate of the secretariat on Saturday, Idahosa threatened to drag the APC to court if the party fails to return his mandate.
He said: “I am not here to make trouble; I am a lawmaker but one thing that we want is justice. Today, I might be a young man but it might be the children of NWC members tomorrow. We have to do the right thing. If we continue to do what is wrong as a country, we are not going to move forward.
“So I am calling on Mr. President to caution the NWC. Elections were held on the 17th of February. What they did on the 22nd was just selection. I challenged one of the LGs’ returning officers to show me a picture of him at the local government headquarters where he collated the results, he was just blabbing. There was nothing because I know that they were in the same hotel in Benin and that’s where they wrote all the results.
“So my fellow party members, I am not here to make trouble. I am only here to seek justice. I wrote yesterday to the appeal panel committee and I know they will do justice. I just want to go through the process, having exhausted the party’s conflict resolution mechanism. I will go further to seek justice in the court of law as I will not allow this to stand.”
Meanwhile, the Edo governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Monday Okpebholo, received his certificate of return from the leadership of the ruling party on Saturday.
Okpebholo defeated Idahosa and 10 other aspirants last Thursday to emerge as the party’s flag bearer in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State.
The certificate was presented at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja by the National Chairman of APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, who was accompanied by the National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru and some NWC members.
Addressing the media after the presentation ceremony, Ganduje expressed optimism that APC would record an overwhelming victory in the September governorship poll in Edo State.
In another development, the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, has congratulated the winner of Friday’s primary, Olumide Akpata, saying he has the capacity to win the Edo governorship election slated for September 2024.
The former president of the Nigerian Bar Association polled 316 votes to beat his closest rivals, Ken Imasuangbon and Prof Sunny Eromosele who scored seven votes each. Sergius Ògún garnered four votes; Earnest Àyègbè scored three votes while Paul Iseghohi withdrew from the race.
While calling on other aspirants to eschew bitterness by collapsing their structures for the success of the party candidate at the poll, Abure, who was recently arrested and released on bail for being in possession of firearms last Wednesday, appealed for a united front.
The embattled chairman made the appeal in a congratulatory message released by his media team in Abuja on Saturday.
Credit: Punch