Controversy continue to trail Saturday’s Edo State governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as another candidate, Mr Anamero Dakeri, has claimed he won the election.

At the conclusion of the primary election held in 192 wards of the state, chairman of the seven-man election committee for the exercise Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State announced Dennis Idahosa winner, while a parallel primary held in the house of one of the aspirants who stepped down 24 hours to the election declared Senator Monday Okpebholo as winner.

The Returning Officer of the process, Dr Stanley Ugboajah declared Senator Okpebholo winner at the private residence of one of the aspirants, while the local government returning officers early on Sunday, announced Dakeri winner of the contest.

With this scenario, another candidate, the immediate past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, has condemned the primary election, saying many people were disenfranchised and that the votes did not count.

Clem Agba claimed to have won the primaries and threatened to seek redress while remaining a loyal member of the APC."We will proceed speedily within the guidelines laid down by our party to seek justice."

Agba said: "Unfortunately what we have all witnessed in the APC primaries in Edo State on Saturday February 17, 2024 falls below the minimum standard of democratic elections that is universally acceptable."

Meanwhile, a group known as APC Stakeholders Forum, has urged the National Chairman of the party to disregard the results of the primary election declared by Uzodimma because he was not the chief returning officer of the election.

The party’ had on Saturday afternoon told Nigerians to disregard any result that did not emanate from the Uzodimma committee.

But after an emergency meeting of the stakeholders in Abuja, on Sunday, spokesperson of the forum, Mr Emmanuel Godwin accused the Uzodimma committee of seizing the duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo State primary.

Godwin has also congratulated Dakeri on his victory in the primary, saying: “As critical stakeholders of the party, we stand with Dekeri. We stand by him and we want to assure the good people of Edo that succour is on the way. “In this instance, we have been inundated with news that a particular candidate was announced yesterday by His Excellency, Hope Uzodimma who incidentally is the chairman of the primary election committee, 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 Dennis 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 it should be disregarded in its entirety.

"Governor Uzodimma lacks the power to usurp duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo State primaries."

They appealed to Ganduje and President Bola Tinubu to discard the Governor Uzodimma's declaration of Idahosa, who they claimed didn’t win the primaries.

https://21stcenturychronicle.com/ex-minister-threatens-legal-action-over-edo-apc-primary/

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