As confusion persists over the All Progressives Congress governorship primary held in Edo State, where three aspirants are laying claim to the ticket, a forum within the party, the APC Critical Forum, has urged the national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, not to accord recognition to Honourable Dennis Idahosa.
Idahosa was declared the winner of the primary by Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinnma, who was chairman of the seven-man panel that conducted the primary.
Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that parallel primaries were held where Honourable Anamero Dekeri and Senator Monday Okpebholo equally emerged.
The APC National Working Committee, in a statement at the weekend, declared that it would only recognise results declared by Senator Uzodinnma.
At a media briefing on Monday, the Coordinator of the APC Critical Forum, Honourable Emmanuel Godwin, maintained that the Imo State Governor acted in error, as he noted that the latter proceeded to announce results while returning officers were still collating results.
The Forum therefore appealed to the APC NWC to give the party ticket to Honourable Dekeri, whom they claimed won the party primary.
“As critical stakeholders of the party, we stand with Hon. Dekeri. We stand by him, and we want to assure the good people of Edo State that succour is on the way.
The APC in Edo State needs his statewide popularity, competence, and capacity to win the Edo State gubernatorial election.
“In this instance, we have been inundated with news that a particular candidate was announced yesterday by His Excellency, Hope Uzodinma, who incidentally is the chairman of the primary election committee in Edo State.
“It is unfortunate that Hope Uzodimma, who is not the returning officer in whatever capacity, assumed the position and went ahead to announce Denis Idahosa when the returning officers were still collating the results.
“We wish to therefore state categorically that the purported announcement is null and void and should be disregarded in its entirety.
Governor Uzodimma lacks the power to usurp the duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo state primaries.
“We also condemned in a very strong term the attempt by His Excellency Hope, Hope Uzodima, to subvert the will of the Edo people by declaring fictitious results from the 18 local government areas in the absence of the collation officers who were officially sent to the various local governments.
“We call on the national chairman of our great party, the APC, His Excellency, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to, as a matter of honour, discard Governor Hope Uzodimma’s infamous declaration of one Mr Denis Idahosa, who didn’t win the primaries. “This is a man who lacks the capacity, competence, and character to win the Edo state gubernatorial election for the APC come September 2024.
“Finally, whilst throwing our collective support behind the validly nominated candidate, we also wish to call on the good people of Edo State, both home and abroad, to team up behind Anamero Dekeri, popularly called DANCO, to immediately begin to set up a tactical mechanism to confront the PDP candidate ahead of September 2024.
“It is on record that in a viral video, the state chairman of the party, Emperor Jarret Tenebe, remarked that only Anamero Dekeri and one other Monday Okpebholo are the two aspirants legally qualified to contest the Edo APC primaries held on February 27, 2024, because only the duo complied with the APC guidelines for payment of membership validation exercise. It is on record that Anamero Dekeri alone paid for over sixty-five thousand APC members.”
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