Dennis Idahosa Rejects Edo APC Primary Election Results, Reveals Next Move
Ken Afor
Honorable Dennis Idahosa, an aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Edo State governorship primary, has rejected the results of Thursday’s rerun of the exercise, where he lost to Senator Monday Okpebholo.
Hon. Idahosa, in a statement released on Saturday on his Facebook account, described the declaration of Senator Okpebholo by the Gubernatorial Primary Election Committee, headed by the Cross Rivers State Governor, Bassey Otu, as fictitious and a rape on democracy.
According to the federal lawmaker representing Ovia constituency, events that led to Thursday’s rerun of the primary demoralized a lot of people, which might have contributed to their votes not being counted.
He, however, appealed for calm from his supporters, assuring them that he would seek redress via the party’s internal mechanisms, expressing optimism that the issues would be resolved.
He said, “My dear esteemed supporters and party faithfuls, let me first of all appreciate all party faithful across Edo state for your massive and unwavering support towards my Governorship ambition of becoming our party’s flag bearer in the 2024 Edo governorship election.
“I will never take this show of love and confidence for granted going forward.
“The declaration of fictitious primary election results by the Sen. Bassey Otu’s Committee represents the highest level of rape on democracy ever witnessed in Edo State.
“Events in the last few days may have been very disappointing and demoralizing to lots of people as your votes seemed not to have counted going by the process and declaration of fictitious primary election results of what happened on the field on the 22nd re-run elections in the 192 wards of the State.
“Let me assure you all, our teaming supporters that, I shall explore all the party internal mechanisms to resolve the issues, and seeks justice and where that doesn’t work, I shall communicate with you all on our next line of action.”
It would be recalled that last Saturday, the lawmaker was initially declared the winner of the primary. However, during the week, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC declared that the exercise was inconclusive, prompting it to fix another date for a rerun.
He, however, lost out in the rescheduled exercise as Senator Okpebholo, representing Edo Central, was declared the winner following the collation of results from the 18 local government areas in the state.
Senator Okpebholo polled 12,433 votes to defeat Hon. Idahosa, who polled 6,541 votes.
