Edo Gov Poll: Fresh crisis in APC as aspirant, Dakeri drags INEC to court

An aggrieved governorship aspirant in Edo State, Hon. Anamero Sunday Dekeri, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, praying it to declare him the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the impending election in the state.

Dekeri, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Henry Akunebu, SAN, equally wrote the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which was cited as a defendant in the matter, asking it not to recognize any other candidate presented to it by the APC, pending the hearing and determination of his suit.

Specifically, the plaintiff, who is a serving member of the House of Representatives, in his suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/299/2024, insisted that he was the valid winner of the governorships primary election the APC conducted in Edo state on February 17.

He told the court that he was at the end of the primary election, declared the winner by the Local Government Returning Officer, Mr. Ojo Babatunde, whom he said collated the authentic results from the polling units. 

According to the plaintiff, he polled a total of 25,384 votes to defeat his closest rival, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, who scored 14,127 votes.

He urged the court to declare as invalid, wrongful and illegal, the rescheduled primary election the party held on February 22, which was declared in favour of Senator Monday Okpebholo.

Pending the determination of the suit, the plaintiff, prayed the court to restrain the INEC from recognising or publishing Okpebholo's name as a bonafide candidate for the Edo state gubernatorial election.

He argued that the rescheduled primary poll was conducted in brazen violation of both the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as Slsection 84(13) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

Citing a decided case-law in Ojukwu V. Military Governor of Lagos State & It's (1985) LPELR-21274 (CA), the plaintiff, contended that INEC was legally bound from recognising any candidate of the APC for the election, pending the conclusion of the case. 

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the matter to be heard. 

It will be recalled that whereas the LG Returning Officer announced the plaintiff as winner of the APC primary poll, however, the party's primary election committee led by the governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodinma, declared Idahosa as the winner of the governorship ticket. 

The committee declared that Idahosa, who is equally a member of the House of Representatives, polled 40,483 votes to defeat all the other aspirants.

Nevertheless, following the wave of controversy that trailed the outcome of the primary election, the APC declared it as inconclusive, following which a re-run poll led to the emergence of Senator Okpebholo as the party's flag-bearer.