Angry supporters of an aspirant in Saturday’s All Progressives Congress APC primaries in Edo State have taken up the secretariat in Benin alleging bias by party leaders.
They are led by a well-known acolyte of former Governor now Senator Adams Oshiomhole by the name Tony Kabaka.
The over 50 protesters chased out workers from the facility and have sworn not to leave.
One of the three aspirants laying claim to victory, Hon. Anamero Dekeri, has petitioned the National Chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, demanding a Certificate of Return as winner of the exercise.
Dekeri had on Monday stormed the APC Abuja secretariat at about 1:10 pm and formally presented a letter requesting the Ganduje-led National Working Committee NWC to immediately issue him the certificate.
The Federal lawmaker who spent less than 10 minutes at the secretariat had earlier made straight for the office of the National Chairman and presented the one-page letter.
Local Government returning officers for the primary election, led by Babatunde Ojo had on Saturday declared Anamero Dekeri, a serving House of Representatives member, winner of the exercise.
The development came after the Chairman of the Primary Election Committee and Imo state Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma had declared another federal lawmaker, Dennis Idahosa winner of the exercise.
On his part, returning Officer of the exercise, Stanley Ugboaja, had declared Senator Monday Okpebholo as winner.
They faulted the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, for sending congratulations to Dennis Idahosa.
Governor Uzodimma had Idahosa winner of the party’s governorship primary election, which took place on Saturday.
He reportedly garnered 40,483 votes to become the candidate of the APC in the September 21 governorship election.
Announcing the results, Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, who is also the Chairman of the APC primary election committee, declared Idahosa the winner, saying that he polled the highest number of votes among the nine aspirants.
Ganduje’s congratulatory message was contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Edwin Olofu, on Saturday.
There was, however, a parallel election where Senator Monday Okpebholo was declared the winner by the State Returning Officer, Ogbuaja Uzoamaka, in Benin.
While describing Idahosa as the choice of the people, the APC National Chairman urged him to carry other aspirants along to have a united front ahead of the governorship election in the state.
The former Kano governor also commended Uzodinma’s Primary Election Committee, saying its transparency in the conduct of the election is highly commendable.
He said, “I want to congratulate the winner of the Edo State governorship election, I want to equally commend and appreciate Governor Hope Uzodimma’s election committee for their hard work and the transparent manner in which the primary election was conducted.
“At this point, I want to call on all the aspirants to bury the hatchet and work for the interest of the party so that our party will emerge victorious.“
