Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Three governorship aspirants on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State at the early hours of Tuesday rejected the outcome of the primaries that produced Chief Great Ogboru as the governorship candidate of the party for the 2019 election.
They include former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Engr. Victor Ochei, renowned Political Economist, Prof. Pat Utomi and former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Cairo Ojougboh.
Ogboru had polled 3,292 delegate votes to defeat Ochei, Utomi and Ojougboh who scored 160, 26 and 12 votes respectively, as announced by the Returning Officer, Lawrence Onoja who added that 129 votes were voided.
The primary was conducted by the Jones Erue-led state executive committee, with the other faction led by Cyril Ogodo also conducting a parallel primary.
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But the trio who are from Delta North Senatorial district in an address not only condemned the primary but called on the leadership of the party to cancel it and fix another date for a free and fair election, lamenting that fake delegates’ list was used for the exercise.
They particularly described the delegate lists as arranged, mysterious list which was only known to one man and tailored to favour a particular aspirant, calling on the party leadership that the list must be displayed at the party’s secretariat 48 hours before the next primary election.
The aspirants warned that the leadership of the party should not undermine them, saying that their power is not limited to the primary but the general election especially the justice and equity that demands that Delta North must complete its two terms