Crisis looms in Edo APC after Senator Okpebholo emerges as parallel governorship candidate

The Senator representing Edo Central, Monday Okpebholo, on Saturday won a parallel All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in the state.

The Returning Officer, Stanley Ugboaja, declared Okpebholo as the winner of the exercise after he polled 12,145 votes.

This came a few hours after a member of the House of Representatives, Dennis Idahosa, was declared the winner of a primary election supervised by a committee headed by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, in Benin City.

The APC National Working Committee (NWC) had earlier declared that only the Uzodinma-led committee was empowered to announce the results of the governorship primary in the state.

READ ALSO: Idahosa wins APC governorship primary in Edo

In his address at the end of the exercise, Ugboaja said he was the right person to announce the result of the election.

“I am the right person to declare the results of this primary election but unfortunately I was not allowed to finish the announcement.

“Having scored the highest number of votes, I hereby declare Senator Okpebholo the winner of the election.”

Also, the APC Publicity Secretary in Edo State, Peter Uwadiae, described the announcement of Idahosa as the winner of the party’s governorship ticket in the state as illegal.

He urged the party members in the state to disregard Governor Uzodinma’s announcement on the outcome of the exercise.

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