Just in: APC names Hon Dennis Idahosa as running mate to Senator Monday Okpebholo

The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress [APC] has overruled the decision by its governorship candidate in Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, to run with Hon Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama in the scheduled September 21, 2024 governorship election in the state.

The Dr Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Working Committee, which originally  plotted with Governor Hope Uzodinma as the executioner of a predetermined agenda to foist Hon Dennis Idahosa on the party as its governorship candidate during the party’s controversial primary polls, has now deployed the magnitude of its position and influence in the imposition of Idahosa on Senator Monday as his running mate.

Recall that Idahosa had written to the Independent National Electoral Commission  [INEC], calling on the body not to recognise the outcome of the rescheduled guber primary poll that produced Okpebholo as the party’s candidate.

Taking cognizance of Idahosa’s  proclivity to challenge the candidature of Okpebholo, the candidate, acting in concert with some strategic party leaders in the state, had dug deep into Edo South zonal architecture to search out and forge a ticket that was formidable enough to win the election in spite of any odds.

Enter Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] Legacy Group and Hon Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama.  Recall that Ogbeide-Ihama, who had earlier expressed interest in seeking the guber ticket of the PDP, had withdrawn from the party’s guber primary poll in a letter he submitted to the party a week earlier.

But the announcement of his withdrawal from the PDP  primary poll was made about twenty-four hours to the exercise in which Barrister Asuelimen Ighodalo emerged as PDP’s governorship candidate.

The influential legacy group on the watch of PDP’s South-south National Vice Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, had been prediposed to a solid  political arrangement that would defeat the PDP ticket apparently coupled, single-handed, by Governor Godwin Obaseki at the expense of the Legacy Group.

THE CONCLAVE reports that Obaseki had selected his Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie, as running mate to Ighodalo.

The formidable Ighodalo-Ogie ticket was expected to be deployed in the guber poll with its utilitarian electoral value  against an equally formidable presumptive Okpebholo-Ogbeide Ihama ticket as agreed to last week by Okpebholo and leaders of the APC in Edo South, among them Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Senator Matthew Urhoghide and General Charles Airiavbere.

THE C0NCLAVE reports that sensing that he might lose out completely in the governorship enterprise and with his leadership of the party irredemably discounted, Senator Adams Oshiomhole had inserted his wedge in the wheel to bring the process by the state chapter of the APC to a halt and upended the earlier arrangement to select Ogbeide-Ihama as Okpebholo’s running mate.

THE CONCLAVE reports that while the Okpebholo-Ogbeide Ihama arrangement  was being solidified prelude to its consummation, Senator Oshiomhole was said to have gone to the Presidential Villa to present his case as to why as the leader of the party in the state he should have a stake in the coupling of the guber ticket in Edo.

His strong argument, as gathered, was that having lost his bid to produce the governorship candidate, should he be denied the right to produce the running mate?

He was said to have swayed both the Presidency and the APC leadership to concede the choice of running mate to him: he put forth his candidate for the guber ticket-Hon Idahosa, who is now expected to deactivate and/or discontinue all processes he filed to challenge the emergence of Okpebholo from Edo Central as governorship candidate of the APC.

Despite the shenanigans and misgivings around the conduct and outcome of the APC guber primary poll,  the selection of Idahosa has excited the Oshiomhole camp.

THE CONCLAVE learnt that the PDP is also excited about the Okpebholo-Idahosa ticket which it sees as weak when compared with its Asue Ighodalo-Ogie ticket.

The PDP is particularly excited that the Legacy Group could not push through its gambit to put Ogbeide-Ihama on the ballot as running mate to Okpebholo- the APC guber candidate, given Ogbeide Ihama’s electoral formidability and the prospects of PDP members following him to the APC, which would deplete PDP’s votes.

Meanwhile, weeks of anxiety over the sensitive issue have ended with the formal announcement of Idahosa as running mate to Okpebholo by the party’s National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje in company with other party leaders, including Senator Oshiomhole.