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• As Okpebholo emerges APC guber candidate
From Fred Itua, Abuja
After protracted intrigues and horse trading, a serving Senator from Edo Central, Monday Okpebholo, who was adjudged to have won the governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State last Saturday, has eventually emerged winner of the rerun poll.
Chairman of the election committee and Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu announced the final result of the exercise in the capital, Benin City, after the collation of results from 18 Local Government Areas.
Senator Okpebholo polled 12,433 votes to defeat 11 other aspirants who contested the primary election.
However, Saturday Sun has uncovered how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC and some leaders of the Senate played pivotal roles in the scheme of things that ensured a fair process at the rerun election.
Prior to the poll, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, with the backing of the Presidency, had settled for Edo Central, a senatorial district that has not produced a governor in the state since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999.
Whereas Edo South has produced two governors for eight years each, Edo North, where former Governor Adams Oshiomhole hails from, has also produced a governor that held sway for two terms of eight years. Poised to ensure respect for zoning, the leadership of the party, with the backing of the Presidency, settled for zoning the slot to Edo Central.
Few days to the cancelled primaries held last Saturday, leading aspirants stepped down and endorsed Senator Okpebholo from Edo Central, based on the zoning arrangement.
But Oshiomhole, however, was believed to have supported a member of the House of Representatives, Dennis Idahosa.
Idahosa was declared by the then Chairman of the Election Committee, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State as winner of the election.
The resultant controversies and crisis, Saturday Sun gathered, infuriated President Tinubu, who was away in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on official engagement.
A party leader who played a prominent role in the process revealed that soon after the President returned, he summoned the national chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje. He told Saturday Sun that Akpabio, who had tried to intervene, made a strong presentation before the President. These interventions, it was gathered, changed everything.
He said: “In order to save its face, the NWC of the party hurriedly called for a meeting and nullified the election – the same APC that had congratulated Idahosa. “So, Edo Central people owe this remarkable feat to President Tinubu who insisted on zoning and reprimanded those who participated in the earlier action that produced Idahosa.”
He said efforts by some powerful forces to overturn the decision went futile, as President Tinubu stuck to his guns.
According to the APC chieftain, the President has, after the intrigues that produced Okpebholo, directed the NWC and other party leaders to reconcile aggrieved members of the party in Edo State ahead of the governorship election.
