Protests trail Edo APC council primaries, Osun holds poll tomorrow

Protests have trailed the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship and councillorship primaries for the March 3, 2018 council election, especially in Owan East and Esan Central councils over alleged imposition of candidates.

Besides, a chairmanship aspirant in Egor Local Council, Stewart Efe, has been arrested by security agencies. He was said to have opposed the nomination of Eghe Ogbemudia as the party’s consensus candidate in the council.

Party leaders had contacted the Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Babatunde Kokumo, who immediately deployed policemen to the area while men of the Department of State Security (DSS), who arrived the scene arrested Efe and others and are currently in police custody.

APC leaders in Owan East, led by Roland Edeki and Aledu Bello, among others, alleged that the Deputy Governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, diverted the leader of the panel to supervise the primaries, Emmanuel Agbale to Warake where they declared Andrew Osigbe consensus chairmanship candidate.

They claimed that the primaries were scheduled to hold at Afuze.

But in a swift reaction, Shaibu’s Chief Press Secretary, Musa Ebomhena, described the allegation as untrue, saying that Warake was the designated centre but certain persons wanted to divert the venue, which was rejected by the people.

Edeki, however, said the protest was to bring to the notice of the party Chairman in the state and Governor Godwin Obaseki that the primaries scheduled for January 24 was hijacked.

He cautioned that unless urgent steps were taken to address the issue, the party may be plunged into crisis in the area. In his reaction, state chairman of APC, Anselm Ojezua, said the party would look into the petitions following the primaries.

Meanwhile, the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) has said the Saturday January 27, 2018 council poll would hold in 71 of the 389 wards in the state.

Chairman of the Commission, Segun Oladitan, said the decision was necessitated by the withdrawal of 318 councillorship candidates.