A former National Vice Chairman North-west of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman has predicted that Edo state Governorship election coming up later in the year would be a battle royale.
He added that the emergence of Mr. Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party and Senator Monday Okpebholo of APC had indicated that the givernorship election would be keenly contested.
Lukman in a statement issued Saturday noted that APC needed a popular candidate for the election to contest against these heavyweights.
He said: “What is very clear is that given the emergence of Mr. Asue Ighodalo and Mr. Olumide Akpata SAN as PDP and Labour Party candidates for the same elections, it should be expected that the election will be keenly contested.
“These are two well accomplished and respected persons. APC needed a popular candidate for the election to contest against these heavyweights. Is Sen. Okpebholo the popular candidate APC needs to win the Edo 2024 Governorship election?”
Lukman said the mere fact that he could stand out and successfully become the arrowhead against the imposition of a candidate in APC for Edo 2024 election suggests that he enjoys strong support within the APC.
The party chieftain said it was worrisome that the ruling party was almost set up for another disaster in Edo state
Recall that the governorship primary election held on February 17 was conducted under the supervision of the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma who was Chairman of the Primary Election Committee.
However, the controversial primary election saw the emergence of three candidates — Dennis Idahosa, Senator Monday Okpebholo and Hon. Anamero Dekeri.
It was based on this that the leadership of the party sacked Uzodinma as the chairman of the primary election and replaced him with the Governor of Cross River state, Senator Bassey Otu who conducted the last Thursday rescheduled election that produced Sen. Monday Okpebholo as the APC gubernatorial candidate for the September 2024 election.
Lukman noted: “The February 17 primary was marred with a series of allegations of malpractices. Everything about the February 17 APC primary election turned out to basically replayed all the old scripts of attempts to manipulate the emergence of a particular aspirant as the Governorship candidate of the APC for the September 2024 Edo elections.”
The party chieftain stressed that this was almost exactly the script acted in 2020 that produced Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the APC 2020 Edo State Governorship election, adding that the slight difference was that this time around was that Senator Adams Oshiohmole is not the National Chairman of the APC.
Lukman noted: “It was quite worrisome that the APC was almost set up for another electoral disaster in Edo State.
“Without attempting to overlook one of the critical challenges of political party development in Nigeria, which is about instituting a transparently democratic process of candidate selection process within our political parties, it is a source of pride that the APC NWC under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was able to quickly arrest the drift, which would have confirmed the APC as an undemocratic party.
“It is quite commendable that the leadership of the APC was able to retrace its steps by first re-organising the Primary Election Committee and then allowing a level playing field to guarantee the emergence of a popular candidate based on majority votes.
“Unlike previous cases whereby the Primary Election Committee practically allocates votes to aspirants and declare an anointed person as the winner, it is also commendable that the reorganised APC Primary Election Committee under the leadership of His Excellency Otu chose the path of honour by allowing fair contest to produce the winner of the primary.”
Lukman said the big question was whether this would be the new standard in APC.