Conflicting results emerged yesterday from the Edo South All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial primary as Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama and Osagie Ize-Iyamu were declared winners in different coalition centres in Benin.
Meanwhile, Senator Adams Oshiomhole won the APC ticket to represent Edo North, with Senator Joseph Ikpea picking up that of Edo Central.
At the Uropkota Hall coalition centre, the Chairman of APC National Assembly Primary Election for Edo South Muhammed Ajana announced that OgbeideIhama won the primary after scoring 27,154 votes, with Senator Neda Imasuen polling 13,580 votes and IzeIyamu 6,785 votes.
He said: “There are seven local governments that make up the Edo South. We have heard from the returning officers from the seven local government areas. “From the collation, the cumulative result we have for Edo South is this: Ogbeide-Ihama with 27,154 votes, Imasuen with 13,580 votes and Ize-Iyamu with 6, 785.
“This is the total reflection of what has transpired from the ward level to the local government and the Edo South senatorial district collation centre. “With this, we await further directives from the National Secretariat.
We have done our best by collating the results, which is our mandate, to collate the results and send them to the National Secretariat.”
Meanwhile, the results from the other side announced Ize-Iyamu as the APC candidate for the Edo South race. It was learnt that he claimed to have clinched the party’s ticket after defeating Ogbeide-Ihama and Imasuen.
It was claimed that the Chief Returning Officer, Abubakar Kabiru, officially declared Ize-Iyamu the winner after securing the highest number of votes cast. Meanwhile, Imasuen described the election as “a sham”.
