Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, has said the officials of the commission only monitored the governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced Senator Monday Okpepholo as gubernatorial candidate.
The Edo REC said the commission was only invited to the primary held the Lushville Hotel and Suite in Benin City.
Onuoha disclosed this on Monday in Benin, during his maiden parley with journalists in the state.
Recall that two parallel primaries were conducted by the APC in Edo with Hon. Dennis Idahosa emerging winner of the result announced by the chairman of the election committee and governor of Imo state, Hope Uzodimma, at Protea Hotel, while Senator Monday Okpepholo emerged winner of the result collated by the returning officer of the election, Stanley Ugbuaja, at Lushville Hotel and Suite.
Answering questions from journalists when asked which of the two parallel primaries conducted by the two factions of the party was monitored by INEC, Onuoha said he monitored the one the Commission was invited to monitor.
According to him, “The Supreme Court has taken decision on the monitoring of party primaries, that party primaries are primary duties of the parties.
“Our own is to supervise and in doing such supervision, the party will tell us the venue. It is not the state chapter of the party that will tell us the venue.
“The national body will write to INEC national chairman of the venue, and the date and the time of the primary, and that we have followed strictly.
“Any political party’s primary that was not minuted to us by our headquarters, we will not monitor. We were notified by APC and we monitored the one we were invited at Lushville Hotel. I was there, that was where I went,” he said.
The Edo REC who frowned at all aspirants in the 21 September gubernatorial election for engaging campaigns while the Commission was yet to lift ban on campaign, called on the aspirants to remove all their campaign billboards or face sanctions.
He also berated media organizations who carry such campaigns, even as he threatened to report them to relevant regulatory agencies for sanction.
