Following the crisis rocking the outcome of Edo State governorship primary election of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, a group on the aegis of APC Stakeholders Forum has asked the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje to disregard the declaration made by Governor Hope Uzodimma.
The Forum urged Mr Ganduje to rally support for Anamero Dekeri as the authentic candidate of the party.
Mr Uzodimma, who was the Chairman of the primary committee, had declared Hon. Dennis Idahosa as the winner of the primary election, while a returning officer, Ojo Babatunde declared Hon. Anamero Dekeri as the APC candidate.
Addressing a press conference Sunday in Abuja, the APC Stakeholders Forum led by Emmanuel Godwin declares support for Hon. Dekeri, adding that the APC Edo state needs his (Danco) statewide popularity, competence and capacity to win Edo State gubernatorial election.
The forum said the purported announcement of Idahosa is null and void and it should be disregarded in its entirety, adding that Governor Uzodimma lacks the power to usurpe duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo state primaries.
“Let me first of all start by congratulating the winner of the just concluded primary election in Edo state, Hon. Anamero Dekeri for emerging victorious in the just concluded Edo State APC Gubernatorial Elections.
“Hon. Dekeri popularly called DANCO is indeed the man of the people with proven capacity to win the general elections in Edo state across the 18 local governments.
“The Man with mandate of the people to reclaim Edo state back to the APC in September 21st, 2024.
“As critical stakeholders of the party, we stand with Hon Dekeri. We stand by him and we want to assure the good people of Edo state that succour is on the way.
“The APC edo state needs his statewide popularity, competence and capacity to win Edo State gubernatorialelection.
“In this instance, we have been inundated with news that a particular candidate was announced yesterday by His Excellency, Hope Uzodinma who incidentally is the chairman of the primary election committee, Edo state. I
“t is unfortunate that Hope 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 usurpe duties and responsibilities of local government returning officers in the Edo state primaries.
“We also condemned in a very strong term the attempt by His Excellency Hope, Hope 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 the APC, His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and the president of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to as a matter of honour discard Governor Hope 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.
“Finally, whilst 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 teem up behind Anamero Dekeri popularly called DANCO 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 had 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 Anamero Dekeri alone paid for over sixty five thousand APC members.”
