The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, yesterday, denied reports making the rounds that a former member, House of Representatives (Oredo Federal Constituency), Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, has emerged the running mate to the opposition party’s governorship candidate, Monday Okpebholo, ahead of the September 21 Edo governorship election.

The State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Uwadiae Igbinigie, who disclosed this to newsmen, denied the rumour.

He said: “There is no truth in that Ogbeide-Ihama is in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). How can a PDP man be the running mate to our governorship candidate? We don’t even need to react to that, because he is not a member of our party.

“As of today, Ogbeide-Ihama is in the PDP. Until such a person is a member of APC, he cannot be talking about being a running mate.

“We are not looking beyond our party to geta running mate for our candidate. We have sophisticated men, robustly intelligent people who will fill that position in our party. Wecannot be talking of the deputy governor outside our party.

Igbinigie stressed that Ogbeide-Ihama’s membership has not been confirmed, let alone coming to the party and taking the deputy governorship slot. According to him, that would mean that APC didn’t have men before now.He confirmed that APC is richly blessed with people, who are prepared for the position of the deputy governor.