‘I want justice’ — Idahosa, Edo guber hopeful, leads protest at APC HQ over primary

Dennis Idahosa, a governorship hopeful on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Saturday led a protest at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja over the just-concluded primary election in Edo state.

Idahosa lost out to Monday Okpebholo, senator representing Edo central, at a rerun of the party’s primary poll.

In the exercise conducted a week ago, Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo and chairman of the primary election at the time, declared Idahosa winner.

However, there was confusion after other winners were declared from the process.

The party rescheduled the poll for Thursday which was organised by a panel led by Bassey Otu, governor of Cross River state.

Addressing journalists at the main entrance of the APC secretariat, Idahosa said he wanted justice and was not there to make trouble.

“I am not here to make trouble, I am a lawmaker but one thing that we want is justice. Today, I might be a young man but it might be the children of NWC members tomorrow,” the house of representatives member said.

“We have to do the right thing, if we continue to do what is wrong as a country, we are not going to move forward.

“So I am calling on Mr. President to call NWC to order. Elections were held on the 17th of February. What they did on the 22nd was just selection.

“I challenged one of the LGA returning officers to give me, show me a picture of him in the local government headquarters where he said he collated the results and he was just blabbing, there was nothing because I know that they were in the same hotel in Benin, that’s where they wrote all the results.

“So my fellow party members, I am not here to make trouble, I am only here to seek justice, whatever they have done, if it is not properly managed, I have written yesterday to the appeal panel committee and I know they will do justice, even if whatever they did.

“I just want to go through the process, having exhausted the party’s resolve mechanism, I will go further, I will seek justice in the court of law and I will not allow this to stand.”

On his part, Bernard Ekun, a lawyer and APC chieftain in Edo, said the fresh election is unacceptable.