Protesters take over Edo APC secretariat over parallel primaries

• Protesters take over Edo APC secretariat over parallel primaries
• Ex-commissioner resigns party membership

The confusion and dissatisfaction birthed by Saturday’s governorship primary election in Edo State yesterday assumed a new dimension with youths, led by the party’s state Youth Leader, taking over the state secretariat of the party.

This is even as one of the aspirants that were declared winners in the parallel primaries, Anamero Dekeri, stormed the office of the national chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to demand his certificate of return.

Similarly, Oserheimen Osunbor and Clem Agba, two of the leading contestants for the APC ticket in the election, have rejected the outcome and called for urgent intervention.

Recall that the parallel primary elections held by the APC in Edo on Saturday had produced at least three ‘winners’ with the chairman of the primary election committee, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, declaring Dennis Idahosa, the member representing Ovia Federal Constituency as winner while the Returning Officer for the election, Dr Stanley Ugboaje, declared Senator Monday Okpepholo, representing Edo Central Senatorial District, as the winner.

Also, the Local Government Returning Officer in the third parallel primary, Ojo Babatunde, declared Anamero Dekeri, the member representing Etsako Federal Constituency, as the winner.

This controversy had thus taken a new twist in the early hours of Monday as some youths and women stormed the party secretariat and chased away members of the State Working Committee led by Jarret Tenabe, the acting state chairman.

The crowd, after forcing its way into the offices, brought out the furniture, bags of rice and other equipment.

They accused the party officials of an alleged plot to sabotage the party in the September 21 governorship poll in Edo State, and thereafter took over the secretariat.

Speaking with journalists, the state APC Youth Leader, Tony Adun (popularly known as Kabaka), who led the crowd, accused the state APC leadership of working at cross purposes with the national leadership of the party.

He alleged that officials collected a $250,000 bribe from an unnamed aspirant.

He said: “Hon. Idahosa, 43, won Saturday’s primary as announced by Hope Uzodinma, the chairman of the APC electoral committee. We youths are saying this is our time. And a youth has emerged. We the youths will resist the SWC members working against him (Idahosa).”

But reacting, the state acting chairman of the party, Jarret Tenebe, when contacted, denied the allegation, saying the SWC had no hand in the primary.

He said the youths that have “taken over the secretariat must be illiterates. It is illiteracy taken too far and the wrath of the law will catch up with them because they destroyed a lot of things in the secretariat.

“When they are tired, they will leave there, but they will be brought to book,” he said.

Aspirant storms Ganduje’s office, demands certificate of return

In a related development, one of the three aspirants claiming to be the candidate of the APC in the September 21 governorship election in the state, Anamero Dekeri, on Monday stormed the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, and demanded the national chairman to issue him the certificate of return.

Dekeri, who arrived at the APC national secretariat on Monday afternoon, made his way to Ganduje’s office where he presented a formal letter to the party’s helmsman demanding the certificate of return.

The lawmaker claimed that he scored the highest number of votes to win the APC primary poll.

But when contacted, the APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, said the issues would soon be resolved.

Morka said, “We will have updates soon. I will provide the updates as soon as we develop them.”

This is also as two of the aspirants who contested in Saturday’s primary described the process as a sham that would not stand any legal inquiry.

A former governor of the state, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, who also contested in the primary, in a statement yesterday, called on President Bola Tinubu to save the party from the looming crisis of “a flawed primary”.

Osunbor also called for the cancellation of the primaries, after alleging that the party officials deployed from Abuja to conduct the elections at the various wards and local government areas of the state were kept in hotels in Benin City.

“What we saw on television was not the result of the election but the allocation of votes by some persons in Benin to each of the aspirants,” Osunbor said.

Also reacting, Prince Clem Agba, who also contested the election, said the primary election fell “below the minimum standard of democratic elections that is universally acceptable.” 

The immediate past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, in a statement, “said thousands of loyal party members were disenfranchised.

“While I remain a loyal party member, I will not be part of a process that robs the mass of our loyal party members of their inalienable right to vote.

“We must come together to challenge this great injustice and restore the integrity and strength of our great party.

“Such impunity that the people have been subjected to should have no place in our great party. We will proceed speedily within the guidelines laid down by our party to seek justice,” Agba said.

Ex-commissioner resigns party membership

Meanwhile, a chieftain of the party, Andrew Emwanta, has announced his resignation from the APC, over the crisis that has trailed the party’s governorship primary election.

Emwanta, a former commissioner in the state, in a statement, attributed his resignation to a lack of internal democracy in the party.

“My decision to resign from the party stems from lack of internal democracy, flowing from the flawed process of the gubernatorial primaries which has left me with no confidence in the party’s leadership structure and sense of political ethos,” the statement read in part.