• Insist Dekeri remains authentic winner
• Okpebholo faults Ganduje’s congratulatory message to IdahosaAPC critical stakeholders, led by Emmanuel Godwin, at a press briefing held in Abuja, claimed that Anamero Dekeri actually emerged victorious at the end of the exercise.
The stakeholders justified their position arguing that the resolve by Governor Hope Uzodimma to declare Idahosa winner of the exercise cannot stand since he was not the returning officer of the primary election.
They said: “We wish to, therefore, state categorically that the purported announcement is null and void, and it should be disregarded in its entirety. Uzodimma lacks the power to usurp duties and responsibilities of local council returning officers in the Edo State primary.”
“We also condemned, in a very strong term, the attempt by Uzodimma to subvert the will of Edo people by declaring fictitious results from the 18 local councils in the absence of collation officers, who were officially sent to various local councils.
Dekeri, popularly called DANCO, is, indeed, the man of the people with proven capacity to win the general elections in Edo across the 18 local councils.
“As critical stakeholders of the party, we stand with Dekeri. We stand by him, and we want to assure the good people of the state that succor is on the way.
“The Edo APC needs his statewide popularity, competence and capacity to win the gubernatorial election.” The stakeholders, thereby, called on the National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and President Bola Tinubu to disregard the declaration of Idahosa as winner of the primary.
Recall that the spokesman of the local council returning officers, Ojo Babatunde, had declared Dekeri winner with a total number of 25,384 to defeat his closest rival, Idahosa, who scored 14,127 votes.
The returning officer for the primary, Stanley Ugboajah, in another twist, declared another aspirant, Monday Okpebholo, as winner of the exercise.
MEANWHILE, Okpebholo has faulted the congratulatory message from the National Chairman of APC, Ganduje, to Dennis Idahosa, who claimed victory at the primary election, describing the action as misleading and an attempt to give credence to his rival’s claim to victory.
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