Why Tinubu ordered APC NWC to rerun Edo guber primary election

But for President Bola Tinubu who reined in the leadership of the All Progressives Congress [APC] to order a return to the field, the disparate aspirants claiming victory would have continued to lay individual claim to the party’s ticket.

THE CONCLAVE reports that TInubu frowned at the fact that the primary election of February 17 was conducted in breach of the guidelines of the party and tbe electoral act.

All those who claimed to have won the primary election were declared outside the venue-Lushville Hotel and Suites, GRA, Benin- which the APC formally conmunicated to INEC as venue for collation and announcement of results.

Recall tbat thugs had invaded and disrupted the process almost midway, causing a relocation to another venue [residence of Pastor Isagie Ize-Iyamu] where the Chief Returning Officer, Dr Stanley Ugboajah, announced Senator Monday Okpebholo.

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The announcement of Okpebholo had come on the heels of the declaration of Hon Dennis Idahosa as winner by the Chairman of the State Electoral Committee and Imo governor, Sebator Hope Uzodinma at Protea Hotel, Benin.

The breach of the official venue requirement is considered a good ground for the court, in the event of litigation, to vitiate the process that threw up any of the candidates submitted to INEC by the Party.

THE CONCLAVE further reports that Tinubu was averse to obvious imposition of a candidate who was fraudulently passed off as an anointed candidate of the Presidency.

President Tinubu’s intervention helped the party to accept INEC’s position in a letter, which informed the APC’s National Working Committee that, in its records, the party [APC] had not conducted its primary election.

INEC reportedly hinged its position on the fact that the venue that was communicated to it [the Commission] was Lushvile Hotel and Suites.

INEC also pointed out that both the ‘private residence’ of one of the aspirants where the State Returning Officer, Dr. Stanley Ugboajah had declared Senator Monday Okpebholo as winner, and Protea Hotel where Governor Hope Uzodinma declared Hon. Dennis Idahosa winner, were both not the venue recognized by the Commission.

Some media report said that the introduction of a ‘State Returning Officer’ was also frowned at by a section of the national leadership of the party, including, as claimed, the leader of the party, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Returning Officer, Dr Stanley Ugboaja, was also discovered to be a staff member in the office of Mr. Nze Chidi Duru, Deputy National Organising Secretary of the party.

The open interest by a section of the NWC in the process was unsettling to the Presidency, which feared it could fracture the party and lead to loss of the governorship poll.

THE CONCLAVE reports that aspirants have intensified mobilisation of their supporters for the fresh primary election which has now been fixed for Thursdsy, February 22, 2024.