...Says battle to kick out APC has begun
From Tony Osauzo and Ndubuisi Orji, Benin
Former Secretary to Edo State Government, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has emerged as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 10 governorship election. He polled 584 votes to defeat his rivals, Messrs Mathew Iduoriyekemwen and Solomon Edebiri, who got 91 and 38 votes respectively.
576 delegates drawn from the 192 wards in the state participated in the process to nominate the PDP governorship candidate.
The primaries which started by 1.42pm ended by 2.57pm and the collation of the results followed immediately. Shortly before the commencement of the collation, the chairman of the electoral committee and governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi invited the three aspirants to give their impression about the conduct of the election. The trio in their separate remarks agreed that the voting process was very peaceful and orderly.
Declaring the results of the gubernatorial primaries, Umahi said 713 delegates were accredited for the gubernatorial primaries. He commended the state chairman of the party, the aspirants and the national leadership of the APC for their contribution in ensuring a smooth process.
He also thanked the Senator Ahmed Makrafi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party for giving the electoral committee a free hand to work.
Earlier, the governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who witnessed the exercise lamented that of the six South South states, only Edo was not within the PDP fold. He said the party is eager to have the state back in its fold.
Okowa admonished members of the PDP in the state not to allow themselves to be intimidated in the run-up to the governorship election. The Delta State governor pledged his support and prayers to the Edo PDP as they go to the governorship polls.
Okowa said he would be with the party in the state all through the electioneering period.
Also, Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Dakwanbo who witnessed the primaries lauded the peaceful conduct of the exercise. He called on all the party members in the state and the other aspirants to rally round the gubernatorial candidate, stating that he has no doubt that the party would win the governorship election.
In his acceptance speech, Ize-Iyamu said there was no Victor and no vanquished in the contest. He said the real battle would be in the days and weeks ahead.
He accepted his nomination with deep appreciation and great humility, saying the September 10 election is the party’s chance to keep the aspiration and hope of the good people of Edo State alive and carry out the real change they deserve.
‘’To the national and state leaders of our great party, the PDP; and to all my fellow citizens of this great state; with deep appreciation and great humility, I accept your nomination for the Edo State governorship election’’, he stated in a statement by the media unit of his campaign organisation.
‘’You have just approved the determination of our party to keep the aspiration and hope of the good people of Edo State alive and carry out the real change the people deserve, ” he added.
Ize-Iyamu expressed thanks to what he described as ‘’the extraordinary accounts’’ of his co-aspirants, who had visited the entire 18 local government areas in the past few months — soliciting votes as candidate of the party, appealing to them to accept the verdict of the people, and join him to liberate the state from the hands of ‘’pseudo progressives and pretenders.’’
He added: ‘’I am grateful to have finished this first bumpy but successful journey with some of the finest politicians of our time in Edo State —- men at comfort with everyone. But the first journey has ended today, and we have started another journey; I appeal to my brothers: Mathew Iduoriyekemwen and Solomon Iyobosa Edebiri to join me and our party to liberate our people and the state from the APC.
‘’A few days ago, I presented to you a manifesto of hope — the SIMPLE AGENDA, which offers measurable commitments that would be implemented with passion, single-mindedness, incisive competence and experience”.
He thanked Umahi for ensuring that the nomination process was transparent just as he commended Okowa and Dakwanbo for identifying with the state PDP, saying that the only way he can appreciate them is to win the state for the party, assuring that he would not rest until the state is rescued from the All Progressives Congress(APC).
He asked the APC to get set to vacate the Government House as the present administration in the state has failed the people.
Ize-Iyamu also thanked the state chairman of the party, Dan Orbih for creating a level playing field for all the aspirants, noting that he never showed preference for any of the other aspirants in the period leading to the primaries.
“There is no winner. There is no loser. It is a family affair. The real battle will be in the days and weeks ahead. I want to assure you that we will not fail. Let nobody be worried, “Ize-Iyamu stated.
The PDP candidate accompanied by his supporters later went round major streets in the state capital in celebration of his victory. Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is former Secretary to the Edo State Government in the second tenure of former Governor Lucky Igbinedion. Before then, he was Chief of Staff to Igbinedion in his first tenure.
He led some aggrieved members of the Edo PDP to form the Grace Group, a political pressure group that has over time metamorphosed into the present day APC in Edo State. But following political differences with Governor Adams
Oshiomhole, he returned to the PDP about two years ago.
APC primaries: Ogiemwonyi, Imansuangbon reject result
Two contestants in last Saturday’s primary election of Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC), Chris Ogiemwonyi and Kenneth Imansuangbon, yesterday rejected the result of the exercise.
Their rejection came less than 24 hours after the party declared Mr. Godwin Obaseki as its candidate for the September 10 gubernatorial election.
Addressing journalists in Benin at a joint press conference yesterday, Ogiemwonyi and Imansuangbon
called on the national leadership of the party and APC Edo State Primaries Appeal Panel to order the repeat and resorting of all the ballots papers used for the exercise.
They also called for the forensic analysis of the ballot papers and the finger prints on the ballot papers.
Ogiemwonyi who spoke on behalf of Imansuangbon, further called for a criminal investigation because the party members hold the view strongly that no individual or group should be allowed to destroy the good image of APC and its leadership that is committed to free and fair primaries, internal democracy and democratization in Nigeria.
“These demands have become necessary and urgent because majority of the delegates believe that the ballot papers used for the primaries have been compromised. This does not suggest in any way the lack of confidence in the committee that conducted the primaries, but an alarm, that calls for the thorough investigation of the source of these ballot papers and the credibility of the ballot papers, for a transparent primaries”, they said.
According to the two contestants in the APC governorship primaries, the announcement of the final result immediately provoked a general condemnation and rejection of the results by delegates that voted in the primaries.
“The delegates are unanimous that the figures that were allocated to the various aspirants were electronically manipulated and in clear contradiction of the pattern of their votes, for their preferred aspirants”, they said.
Accusing Governor Oshiomhole pointedly for interfering with the primary election, the two contestants alleged that his agents smuggled non-delegates into the venue of the exercise because the state government was in full control.
“The open and direct interference into the voting process by the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on several occasions, took the protest of some of us aspirants and the intervention of the Chairman of the Primaries Committee, Alhaji Aminu Masari to persuade the Edo State governor to stay away from the table that was meant for the thumb printing of ballot papers by the delegates. The governor did not pretend over his desire to intimidate the voters”.
Ogiemwonyi and Imansuangbon further alleged that the intimidation of delegates heightened few days to the primaries, when the delegates were arrested and conveyed into different locations that served as camps and temporary prisons, adding that they were not allowed to communicate to the outside world and regular sermons were delivered to them by their captors, on the dangers that will befall them if they refuse to vote for the anointed candidate.
They also alleged that delegates’ Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), were forcefully taken away from them, even as the aggrieved two contestants absolved President Muhammadu Buhari, National chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun and the Committee on the conduct of the primaries from any blame.
Fielding questions from journalists later, Ogiemwonyi expressed hope that the Primaries Appeal Committee will do the needful, alleging that “the ballot papers for the primaries were printed in Benin by a local printer who was interested in Obaseki”.
“What happened Saturday was a rape on democracy. We will have justice, we will remain in APC”, he said.
On his part, Imansuangbon said Obaseki did not win the primaries. “We are asking for justice for delegates that voted for Ogiemwonyi, Odubu and Imansuangbon.
“The 1600 votes were allocated to Obaseki. It is an affront against what Buhari, Oyegun stand for”, he said.
…As Masari submits election report to Oyegun
•Recommends meeting with aspirants, stakeholders
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Chairman of a seven-member Committee for the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election and Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, yesterday handed in the Committee’s report of June 18 election to the headquarters of the party in Abuja.
APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun who received the report at the party’s National Secretariat thanked the committee for successfully conducting the governorship primaries in the state capital, Benin City at the weekend.
Among other recommendations, the committee’s five-page report urged the party’s leadership to convene a reconciliatory meeting with aspirants and other stakeholders, commending the state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the security outfits in the state for their support during the governorship primaries.