Edo: Ganduje summons meeting to resolve dispute

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abdullahi Ganduje has summoned an emergency meeting.

Sources claimed the purpose was to resolve the fallouts of the governorship primaries held in Edo State.

Three primaries, held at different locations in the state, had produced different candidates namely Benson Idahosa, Anamero Dekeri, and Senator Monday Okpebholo.

Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma supervised the primary election that produced Idahosa, which was instantly recognised by the APC national chairman Ganduje.

Ganduje’s congratulatory message to Idahosa spurred accusation of bias from the other aspirants.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in line with its duty, said it monitored a separate primary, producing Okpebholo as its winner.

Stating its position, INEC said that it supervised Okpebholo’s election at the venue the party’s national working committee had informed it about.

The contest for the APC ticket got more intriguing with the returning officer for INEC-supervised election declaring Okpebholo winner in the house of another aspirant, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

The pastor, who was the party’s flag bearer in 2020, was among the contestants until the eve of the primary election, when he announced his withdrawal from the race.

Ize-Iyamu, in his withdrawal statement, said he did so because the party zoned the ticket to Edo South to produce the candidate.

The crisis has continued while some members have called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and save the APC from defeat, like it happened in 2020 when the party lost to incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki under his newly joined Peoples Democratic Party at the time.

The INEC has said that the off-cycle election will hold on September 21.