APC declares Edo primary election inconclusive, fixes fresh date for repeat

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared its governorship primary election held in Edo State on Saturday as inconclusive following conflicting results with three different candidates claiming victory.

In a statement on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the ruling party said a new primary election will be held on Thursday to determine its authentic flagbearer for the governorship election in the state scheduled for September.

The outcome of the primary election was thrown into controversy after three aspirants claimed to have won the party’s ticket.

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma who was the chairman of the Edo primary election committee, had declared Dennis Idahosa, a member of the House of Representatives, as the winner of the contest, having polled 40,483 votes to defeat other governorship hopefuls in the race.

Following the announcement, the returning officers in local government areas in the state came up with another result and announced Sunday Dekeri, a lawmaker representing Etsako federal constituency in the House of Representatives, as the winner.

The controversy took another dimension when another aspirant, Monday Okpebholo, was declared the winner by the returning officer at the residence of Osagie Ize-Iyamu in Benin City.

The conflicting results triggered protests in the state with youths and women storming the party’s secretariat which led to the party leadership dissolving the State Working Committee.

The party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje was forced to convene an emergency meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) on Tuesday and following the meeting, Morka announced that the NWC had resolved that the Edo State governorship primary election was inconclusive.

“The NWC resolves that the Edo State governorship primary election has not been completed and has now fixed Thursday, February 22, 2024 for the completion of the APC primary election process,” he said in the statement.

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