By Abiola Olawale
The crisis rocking the Edo state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has yet again taken a dramatic turn as the winner of the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo received his Certificate of Return amidst heavy protest.
The New Diplomat reports that one of the 11 aspirants that lost out, Dennis Idahosa, stormed the national headquarters of the party to demand justice.
Idahosa, who arrived at the party secretariat at about 2.30pm 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.
It would be recalled that the federal lawmaker was one of the three winners that emerged from the controversial first primary held on 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 winner, while the returning officer, Stanley Ugboaja, declared Okpebholo as winner.
Speaking at the secretariat, Idahosa 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 call NWC to order. Elections were held on the 17th of February. What they did on the 22nd was just selection. I challenged one of the LGA 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 have written 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.”
However, despite the protest, the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Ganduje, presented the Certificate of Return to Okpebholo.
Speaking while presenting Okpebholo with the certificate, Ganduje declared that the APC will come out top in the forthcoming September 21 Edo Governorship Election. Ganduje said his confidence is based on the qualities of the party’s candidate.
“The full cooperation, harmony and unity of all aspirants and members of our party is all we need now to win Edo in the coming election now that the primary is over.
“The party has a product that is refined, well packaged and sellable to the electorate in the person of Okpebholo and is therefore ready to win Edo,” Ganduje said.
