Edo South Senatorial Seat Latest: Imasuen, Okpebholo’s man, is booed and rejected in his move to impose Ogbeide-Ihama.
A meeting of members of the Edo South Senatorial District of Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), about which Edo State govenor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, allegedly gave the order to Mr. Lawrence Orkah, Secretary of the chapter, to get its members to foist the candidacy of Engr Omoregie Ogbeide- Ihama, has been rejected by the teeming members of the party, who crowded a main hall of the Government House, located in the GRA district of Benin City, the state capital.
Problem started when Chief Lucky Imasuen, a former Deputy Governor to the Prof Osereimen Osunbor’s government, that was removed in 2008, by the law court, thus bringing in ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
was shouted down and booed, whilst he tried hard but failed to prompt them into endorsing Engr Ogbeide-Ihama as APC consensus candidate for the Edo South Senatorial seat, whose primary election takes place in few days, before the election holding in 2027.
Sources, who were eyewitnesses to the incident, showed Chief Imasuen announcing to the members, the party’s endorsement of Engr Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama as APC’s candidate for the district, in the 2027 general elections.
However, the crowd replied with a thunderous “no” to his declaration.
According to eyewitnesses, who chose not to be named, the crowd was roudy and uncontrollable as it sang derogtory songs of the former number two citizen of the state, and several top leaders of the party, who they claimed to be in the plot to impose Ogbeide-Ihama as consensus candidate.
One of the party members, who had authenticated a short video 9f the incident, said it was the second time Imasuen was booed by “a rightly angry crowd”, like was done to him in 2008, and nearly lynched in the Benin High Court premises, during the sitting of an election petition tribunal, which sacked him and Senator Osunbor from office.
With only few days to holding the APC’s party election to pick the senatorial candidates for the three senatorial slots in the state, and across the country, the state branch of the party has been entangled in intense crises on the imposition of particular candidated for the elections, particularly in Edo South, which majority of its members are vehemently opposed to.
With prolonged chanting of POI for Senate, the eyewitnesses further confirmed that many in the crowd were in support of the aspiration of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a notable pillar of the party in the state and its former governorship candidate, who stood behind Senator Monday Okpebholo, in the state governorship election.
Asked why Governor Monday Okpebholo, the man Ize-Iyamu stood behind, couldn’t also support him, when it mattered the most, some members of the party said that they regretted the actions of the governor, which they said amounts to a betrayal of his good friend. They further alleged that he was obviously acting on the instructions of some powerful party members from Abuja.
In a well-worded statement, titled “Tinubu or Wike? Where does Governor Monday Okpebholo’s allegiance lie”, Mr. Clifford Obazuwa, a chieftain of the Edo South party, asserted that: “What has shocked many party faithful is not merely the disagreement itself, but the manner in which the Governor is alleged to have openly aligned with the preferred candidate of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Engr. Ogbeide-Ihama, in what many insiders now describe as a direct affront to the authority and political leadership of the President”
Speaking on the crisis, Engr. Austin Osaghae, an APC adherent from Uhunmwode, one of the seven local government areas (LGAs) that consist the south district, said that the Legacy Group, a breakaway from the opposition PDP, with its top members, were the cause.
He also claimed that the governor was ordered to abandon those who worked assiduously for the victory of the party, and instead reward those who did not labour, like Ogbeide-Ihama and his group’s members.
On the way out of the crisis, Osaghae advised that “where there are no forced consensus in choosing the various flagbearers, free and fair primary election should be held for more acceptable candidates to emerge.
He further said that Edo APC cannot afford to have more grievances amongst its teeming and faithful members, with imposition of candidates, otherwise the party could lose the state, let alone getting the 2.5 million votes promised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election, made by the governor
