There were strong indications yesterday that the rescheduled governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo state was initiated to clear legal hurdles against one of the aspirants for the intra-party election, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, who is the choice of the Presidency.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the idea of holding a fresh primary election to elect the flag-bearer of the ruling party in the September 21, 2021 gubernatorial election in Edo State was mooted in order to eliminate legal bottlenecks conspicuously against Idahosa if the earlier controversial primary held on Saturday, February 17, was to be adopted.
Idahosa, who represents Ovia South/West-Ovia North/East in the 10th House of Representatives, is among the three aspirants laying strong claims to victory in the Saturday contentious poll.
He was declared winner in circumstances shrouded in controversy by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, who was the chairman of the APC Edo State Primary Election and Appeal Committee.
Uzodinma claimed that Idahosa polled 40,453 votes to defeat another strong contender, Senator Monday Okpebholo, who scored a paltry 100 votes.
Okpebholo, who represents Edo Central in the 10th Senate, and Anamero Sunday Dekeri, are challenging the declaration of Idahosa as winner of the election by the authorities of the governing party in collaboration with the Presidency.
Okpebholo was also declared winner in another stead by the National Working Committee-appointed returning officer for the election, Dr. Stanley Ugboajah, who said the federal lawmaker polled 12,145 votes to defeat Idahosa, who got 5,563 votes.
The Presidency and the NWC of the party, headed by a former governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, had toed different lines in the countdown to Saturday’s ill-fated primary, with the NWC supporting Okpebholo while the Presidency, with the chief of staff to the President, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, as arrowhead, giving the nod to Idahosa’s bid.
Ganduje’s NWC had backed Okpebholo before it was belatedly called to order by the Presidency.
Uzodinma later unilaterally announced Idahosa as the winner, despite that Okpebholo was coasting home to victory in the election monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC has publicly associated with the primary that produced Okpebholo, insisting that its officials didn’t monitor the one which produced Idahosa.
Impeccable sources at the national headquarters of APC told LEADERSHIP yesterday that the fresh primary slated for Thursday (today) was a move calculated to ensure the processes are properly-controlled to pave the way for the emergence of Idahosa without any encumbrances.
One of the sources said the erstwhile primary was cancelled on the strength of the legal advice that the candidature of Idahosa in the September 21, 2024 election would not survive legal scrutiny.
The source said the Presidency was disturbed by the position of INEC that seemingly recognised Okpebholo as the winner of the primary election.
Another source of worry to Idahosa’s handlers in the Presidency was the announcement of Idahosa, purportedly by a wrong person, Uzodinma, who is not recognised by the provisions of the electoral act.
It was learnt that the Presidency also expressed concerns that Okpebholo had an edge over Idahosa in the eyes of the law following his declaration as winner by the returning officer in the primary, Ugboajah.
One of the sources further told LEADERSHIP that the President felt that it would be legally inexpedient to field Idahosa as the governorship candidate of APC in the general election on the strength of his announcement as winner by Uzodinma and in the face of the circumstances surrounding the last Saturday primaries.
Already, NWC had written INEC to intimate the electoral umpire about the cancellation of the controversial primary and its readiness to conduct a fresh exercise today.
Findings by LEADERSHIP revealed that the NWC has secured INEC’s endorsement for today’s event and the promise of the electoral body to deploy its personnel to monitor the exercise.
Consequently, one of our reliable sources said: “Ganduje was prevailed upon by the Presidency to order a fresh primary to produce Idahosa without let or hindrances. The Presidency has insisted on the choice of Hon. Dennis Idahosa as the candidate of our great party in the governorship election in Edo state and our national chairman, His Excellency, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been given an express directive to deliver Dennis Idahosa without any legal encumbrances.
“The outcome of the last Saturday primary in Edo state jolted the Presidency, especially the position of INEC that it didn’t know of any primary that produced Idahosa as winner and candidate of APC. The way it’s now, our party is going to be in trouble if we field Hon. Dennis Idahosa as our candidate. In case we win and any of the parties go to court, our victory would simply be nullified by the courts due to circumstances of the primaries. The precedent is there; we don’t want to take chances.
“All arrangements have been perfected this time around to deliver Hon. Dennis Idahosa on Thursday (today). The NWC is fully involved and in the picture this time around. INEC has been contacted and invited, and the processes have been skewed in favour of Hon. Dennis Idahosa,” the source, which craved anonymity, added.
Meanwhile, APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, declared that last Saturday’s exercise was “inconclusive.”
Morka, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said today’s outing was meant to wrap up Saturday’s exercise.
“We are out to complete what we started last Saturday on Thursday (tomorrow). The process we started last Saturday was not complete. We intend to complete it tomorrow (today),” Morka added.
Tinubu Rules Out Zoning Formula
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has ruled out zoning as a criterion for the APC governorship primary in Edo State.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole disclosed this to State House correspondents yesterday after meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Oshiomhole met with the President at the State House after the APC National Working Committee decided to rerun the primaries due to controversies in last week’s exercise.
According to him, Tinubu said he is only interested in a free, fair and transparent primary election, and not zoning.
He said, “They have a lot of rumours which I thought Mr. President should speak to and I needed some clarifications from him because as the leader of the party, there are a couple of things that I want to be sure that I know where he stands.
“One of them is the issue of zoning. The President has affirmed that he has no voting right in Edo State. Even though the Edo people have the right to vote for the president, therefore, what matters to him is to ensure that APC members in Edo State in the direct primaries participate in the free and fair primaries.
“That’s the decision of the President. They have been rumours in the air that there’s probably zoning to one area or zoning to another area. The president said that as far as he’s concerned he is committed only to free and fair primaries not based on zoning.
Oshiomhole insisted the party’s governorship primaries in Edo State must be free, fair and transparent without zoning or imposition of any candidate.
He debunked claims that he wants to impose a candidate for the primaries.
APC Drops Uzodimma, Names Otu As Primary Election Chairman
The APC has apparently bowed to pressure, especially from civil society and some aspirants, and removed the Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as the committee chairman of its governorship primary election rescheduled for today.
The party elevated the deputy chairman of the committee, Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River, to chairman, retained all the members and added Hon. Shettima Shehu.
This was contained in a revised 2024 Edo State Gubernatorial Primary Election and Appeal Committees released by the APC national organising secretary, Sulaiman Argungu.
The NWC of APC had on Tuesday night declared last Saturday’s Edo governorship primary election incomplete and rescheduled it for today.
The Uzodimma had declared Hon. Dennis Idahosa as the party’s governorship candidate; Edo state APC returning officer Stanley Ugboajah announced Senator Monday Okpebholo as the flagbearer while Local government returning officers led by Ojo Babatunde returned Anamero Dekeri winner of the contest.
Police Warn Stakeholders Against Violence
The Edo State Police Command has described last Saturday’s delegate primary election of the APC as an eye-opener for it, and it will no longer treat any such election as party affair.
The command’s spokesperson, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, stated this yesterday in his office when he briefed journalists on the preparedness of the command ahead of the party primary.
Violence erupted last Saturday at the collation venue of the All Progressives Congress (APC) delegate election, resulting in serious injuries to some officials of the party and destruction of journalists’ equipment.
“You could remember that we had just little hitch of a particular party delegate election. That has been an eye-opener to Edo State Police Command, that we should no longer see it as a party affair,” Nwabuzor said.
He said the various delegates participating in the election “are from different communities cut across the 18 local government areas of Edo State”, and so, anything could happen.
According to him, “(They are) people with diverse interests, people with diverse behaviours, people with different attitudes and characters.
“So, this time around, we are not going to view it as party affairs; we are going to take it very seriously to ensure that the right thing is done, that the lives and properties of these party members are protected.”
Commenting further on arrangements and deployment of operatives for the exercise, the Edo police spokesman said the Command is working with all other sister security agencies to ensure a smooth exercise.
