EDO (Sundiata Post) – The scenario that has played out in the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State was never contemplated, although there were feelers prior to the Saturday’s governorship primary election that the process would most likely be manipulated to produce a predetermined candidate.
In the last two or three weeks, the speculations doing the round were that the leader of the party in the state, Senator Adams Oshiomhole had concluded plans to foist on the party Hon Dennis Idahosa.
On the eve of the primary election, there was a counter narrative that the Presidency had settled for Edo central and that Senator Monday Okpebholo had been endorsed for the party’s ticket.
The Okpebholo endorsement led to the withdrawal of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu from the race with a directive to his supporters to cast their votes for Senator Okpebholo. Okpebholo had strongly supported Ize-Iyamu on the two occasions he contested for the gubernatorial election in 2016 and 2020 on the platforms of the PDP and the APC respectively.
But on Saturday, as Okpebholo was reportedly winning the primary election, the Chairman of the Primary Election Committee and Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, announced Senator Oshiomhole-endorsed aspirant, Hon Dennis Idahosa as winner of the primary election with 40, 448 votes.
Uzondinma, a political ally of Oshiomhole, announced his version of the result while collation was still going on at the Collation Centre, where the Returning Officer, Dr Stanley Ugboaja, was superintending the process.
Ugboaja, at the end of the collation of results from the 18 local government areas, announced that Senator Okpebholo scored 12,194 votes to emerge winner of the election and to become the APC’s standard bearer in the scheduled September 21, 2024 governorship election.