One of the governorship aspirants in the just-concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election in Edo State, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, has led a massive protest to the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, demanding justice.
Hon. Idahosa, who was initially declared winner of the primary election by the chairman of the APC Primary Election Committee and Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, also threatened to drag the party to court if justice was not done.
He, however, appealed to President Bola Tinubu Ahmed Tinubu to call the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to order over the matter.
Addressing journalists at the main gate of the APC national secretariat, Hon. Idahosa said he has submitted a protest letter to the APC Governorship Appeal Committee, adding that he will take his time to go through the process after which he will proceed to Court to fight for his right against the party.
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 give me, show me a picture of him in the Local government headquarters where he said he collated the results and he was just blabbing, there was nothing because I know that they were in the same hotel in Benin, 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, whatever they have done, if it is not properly managed, I have written yesterday to the appeal panel commitee and I know they will do justice, even if whatever they did, I just want to go through the process, having exhausted the party’s resolution mechanism, I will go further, I will seek justice in the court of law and I will not allow this to stand.”
Also speaking, a lawyer and chieftain of the party from Edo State, who accompanied Hon. Idahosa alongside other party members, Barrister Bernard Ekun, said the party was trying to deliberately deny APC from providing or getting a candidate for the September 21 governorship election.
According to him, when something is inconclusive, it invariably means some places have been identified for primaries to be done in those places, but sadly enough, first, nobody came to the field from the other end.
He said: “The governor who was in charge of the purportedly selection primaries said that it was going to be a fresh election. Between me and you, when you know the issue of INEC, there is supposed to be twenty-one days notices from INEC for that primary. Nothing of such and we are out of time.
“Are you people saying that the selection process you have done, which you called a fresh election should be acceptable to us? No.”
When asked for their demands, Ekun said: “Our demands is that 17th February primaries stands. That is known to law. What they have done is kangaroo selection.
“What these people have done is that they have sold their responsibility, the excellence in them, they have sold as reasonable men. They have sold it for a Chinese cusuine, they have sold it for egg fries. But if you want to go to the Bible, they have sold it for a pot of porridge. And it will not stand!
“People were in the hotel sleeping, how will they have been able to get a result? Even INEC did not observe this selection, kangaroo thing they said they were doing. So what you have seen is that there is no election, we stand on 17th because that is the only one that is duly observe and fallen between the ambit of the law.”
