Lauretta Onochie, the former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, has said that she is embarrassed by the conduct of the just-concluded All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship primary election in Edo State.
Onochie lamented that some unwholesome men have hijacked the APC and now dictate who runs the party.
The primary election conducted to elect APC’s governorship candidate in the forthcoming election produced three different candidates.
Chairman of the primary election committee, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, declared Dennis Idahosa winner of the exercise while the Returning Officer for the primary, Stanley Ugboaja, declared Senator Monday Okpebholo as the APC candidate.
The crisis deepened on Sunday as Anamero Dekeri became the third aspirant to claim victory in Saturday’s governorship primary.
One Ojo Babatunde who said he was acting on behalf of all the local government returning officers, said that Dekeri polled 25,384 votes to win the contest.
However, posting on X, Onochie wrote: “APC must be different. I am so ashamed, embarrassed and scandalised by the disgraceful conduct of our APC in the Edo State Primary, where four Candidates have now emerged.
“We are Progressives, for heaven’s sake! This is what happens when a few unwholesome men hijack a political party and dictate who should run, taking that role from the people.
“Why is APC bent on keeping the South South a PDP territory? Each time we have an opportunity to field a winning candidate, PDP agents in APC ensure that APC fields an inferior candidate who does not stand a chance of winning the PDP candidate. It happened in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
“@OfficialAPCNg must recover our party from traders and work with core progressives in the region to give Nigerians in general and South South in particular, a decent alternative to the messed up PDP.
“At the moment, I look at the two political parties and APC is looking more like PDP than a Progressive political party.
“In conclusion, I believe that the current situation where women are excluded from leadership in APC, does the party no good. A situation where the National woman leader and state woman leaders are nominated by men, ensures that women are not adequately represented in the party. You can’t clap with one hand.”
