Fresh controversy has hit the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary for the Edo state governorship election as party’s stakeholders have petitioned the National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to disregard the declaration of Denis Idahosa as party’s candidate by the Committee Chairman, Governor Hope Uzodinma.
The group under the auspices of APC Critical Stakeholders, who also petitioned President Bola Tinubu, made the disclosure at a press conference held in Abuja on Sunday.
Congratulating Hon. Anamero Dekeri, who they claimed won the just concluded primary election in Edo state, the group, led by the coordinator Emmanuel Godwin claimed that it was shocking to be inundated with news that Uzodinma announced another candidate.
“Popularly called DANCO, Dekeri is indeed the man of the people with proven capacity to win the general elections in Edo state across the 18 local governments. He is the man with mandate of the people to reclaim Edo state back to the APC in September 21, 2024.
“As critical stakeholders of the party, we stand with Dekeri. We stand by him, and we want to assure the good people of Edo state that succor is on the way. We have been inundated with news that a particular candidate was announced by Uzodinma. It is unfortunate that Uzodimma who is not the returning officer in whatever capacity assumed the position and went ahead to announce Denis 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 usurped duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo state primaries.
“We also condemned in a very strong term the attempt by Uzodima to subvert the will of the Edo people by declaring fictitious results from the 18 local government areas in the absence of the collation officers who were officially sent to the various local governments.
“We call on the National chairman of our great party, Abdullahi Ganduje and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to as a matter of honor discard Uzodimma’s infamous declaration of one Mr. Denis Idahosa who didn’t win the primaries.
This is a man who lacks the capacity, competence and character to win Edo state gubernatorial election for the APC come September 2024,” the group warned.
Reacting further, the coordinator said: “While throwing our collective support behind the validly nominated candidate, we also wish to call on the good people of Edo state both home and the diaspora to team up behind Anamero Dekeri to immediately begin to set up tactical mechanism to confront the PDP candidate ahead of September 2024.
“It is on record that in a viral video, the state chairman of the party, Emperror Jarret Tenebe remarked that only Anamero Dekeri and one other Monday Okpebholo are the two aspirants legally qualified to contest the Edo APC primaries held on 27th February 2024 because only the duo complied with the APC guidelines of payment of membership validation exercise. It is on record that Dekeri alone paid for over 65,000 APC members,” the group noted.