By Ken Afor
Mr. Kassim Afegbua, one of the governorship aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, has stated that there was no governorship primary election in the state that produced Senator Monday Okpebholo as the party’s candidate.
In an interview with TheCable, Mr. Afegbua alleged that there was no representative of the Senator during the day of the election and that Senator was handpicked by the national headquarters of the party.
While responding to the allegations leveled against Senator Adams Oshiomhole by some leaders of the party in the state regarding his involvement in the initial primary election that produced Hon. Dennis Idahosa on Saturday, February 17, the former commissioner for information in Edo State said Oshiomhole had nothing to do with the election.
“That is how they wanted it and we say good luck to them. The national headquarters of the party should go and deliver the candidate they have ganged up to produce. We will just sit down here and watch,” he said.
“Since they say Oshiomhole is their problem, they should leave him out of this and go and deliver the man (Okpebholo) during the election.
“We all knew that there was no primary conducted on Thursday by Okpebholo and others. We never saw the representative of Okpebholo and the others on the field.”
According to him, the party headquarters neglected other candidates who lost out in the exercise, including himself, and vowed not to support Senator Okpebholo.
He added, “I am sure they were working from answer to question. If it is the headquarters that will go and endorse a candidate and will be working towards delivering that candidate, then we wish them good luck.
“They don’t consider us as anything. To them, we don’t matter. Those who matter are in the headquarters of the party. They should go and deliver the candidate since they know Edo state more than us. We will be here watching.”
It is worth recalling that in the rerun of the election, Okpebholo was declared the winner after securing 12,433 votes. He defeated Hon. Idahosa, who polled 6,541 votes, as well as 10 other aspirants.
