The All Progressive Congress (APC) on Saturday declared a member of the House Representatives, Dennis Idahosa, as its governorship candidate ahead of Edo State Gubernatorial Election slated for September 21, 2024.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would only reckon with the exercise conducted at the venue communicated by the national leadership of the party.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) on Saturday declared a member of the House Representatives, Dennis Idahosa, as its governorship candidate ahead of Edo State Gubernatorial Election slated for September 21, 2024.
It was learnt that the federal lawmaker polled total votes of 40,483 to emerge as the party’s candidate during the primary election, according to Hope Uzodimma, Imo State Governor and head of the APC primary election committee in Edo State.
The election was declared as flawed after three winners emerged as the APC governorship candidates.
One of the top contenders, Senator Oserheimen Osunbor and other stakeholders called for the cancellation of the election.
However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, on Monday while speaking on the APC primary, noted that INEC monitored the exercise and would only reckon with results declared at the venue committed to it by the national leadership of the party.
He explained that by the decision of the Supreme Court, only the national leadership of a political party and not the state leadership could determine the venue of a primary election. Adding that in the Edo State case, the venue communicated to INEC by the APC national leadership was Lushville Hotel and Suites.
Onuoha said, “The Supreme Court has taken a decision on the monitoring of party primaries, that party primaries are duties of the parties.
“Our own is to supervise and in doing such supervision, the party will tell us the venue. It is not the state chapter of the party that will tell us the venue.
“The national body of the parties will write to INEC national chairman of the venue, and the date and the time of the primary, and that we have followed strictly.
“Any political party primaries that was not minuted to us by our headquarters, we will not monitor. We were notified by APC and we monitored the one we were invited to at Lushville Hotel. I was there.”
The REC warned aspirants and political parties to stop campaigning for the governorship election with immediate effect or face sanction.
He said that the commission had yet to lift suspension on campaign, noting that parties and candidates were expected to begin campaigning on April 24.