Elections
Untold Intrigues That Shaped The Emergence Of Edo Guber Candidates
By Emmanuel Aziken
The governorship election in Edo State has been shaped by many intrigues that will cascade into the future politics of the state.
The unprecedented intrigues around the Edo State governorship election of today is reflected by the fact that what had in the past been a two-man contest has been splintered into a three-horse race.
The main contenders are the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, All Progressives Congress, APC, and Labour Party, LP. It was as such not surprising that the emergence of the candidates in the three major parties was shadowed with much intrigue. The intrigues have continued unto Election Day with insinuations that whosoever emerges after today’s election will be embroiled in a game of intrigues in the years following the election.
GWG.ng reports that the intrigues are no less prevalent among the less influential parties in Edo State.
Accord, the first party listed on the ballot paper is one of such. In the days leading to today’s poll, the party is now celebrated for its unequaled feat in trickery with the candidate and running mate outdoing themselves on the top of the ticket.
Kennedy Iyere, the man listed by INEC as candidate of Accord has been shoved aside by his running mate, Dr Bright Enabulele who days before today’s election told newsmen in Benin, the Edo State capital, that he had replaced the candidate based on the recommendations of the party’s hierarchy. Iyere rebuffed him, but even though INEC lists him as the candidate, it is Enabulele who has been doing the campaign to be governor.
Whereas the story of the coup plot in Accord may not have trended, the attempted coup and counter-coup in the major parties have shadowed the campaign and may well define the election.
In the APC, the emergence of Senator Monday Okpebhelo as the candidate was despite a bloody altercation that left some party enthusiasts bloodied both physically and politically.
Rep Dennis Idahosa, from Edo South, had emerged as the candidate of the party in the first party primary conducted by Governor Hope Uzodimma with 40,453 votes on February 17, 2024. The result was declared at Protea Hotel, where Governor Uzodimma who arrived after the election was well underway made his headquarters.
Remarkably, the returning officer delegated by the party for the primary election, Stanley Ugboaja declared Senator Okpebhelo the winner of the primary with 12,145 votes.
He declared the result in the spacious residence of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu who was one of the aspirants in the APC.
Indeed, the game altered in the APC a day before the February 17 primary after party leaders and top presidency sources reportedly leaked it to Ize-Iyamu that the ticket would go Edo Central, the only part of the state yet to get a meaningful hold on the governorship.
For whatever reason, Senator Okpebholo, a one-time political disciple of the late political leader, Chief Tony Anenih became the favourite.
Okpebholo’s emergence as senator on the platform of the APC in 2023 was an epoch-making event as it marked the first time that the APC or any other party would breach the grip of the PDP on the zone that was once the fiefdom of Chief Anenih.
It all boiled down to the rebellion of PDP leaders and faithful against the third-term aspiration of Senator Clifford Ordia in 2023. Indeed, ahead of the Senate election, PDP members took up the chorus of anyone but Ordia in that election. So, Okpebhelo’s emergence in the Senate was on the thrust of a popular rebellion more than any other matter of political sagacity or grit.
Whether it was Pastor Ize-Iyamu or some other persons in the polity that pushed forward Okpebehelo as the favoured choice of Abuja has remained a mystery.
Some have named Senator Godswill Akpabio as the person who pushed forward Okpehelo to the villa as the choice of the National Assembly as some suggested that the Senate President sought to position his colleague as governor.
Others said that Akpabio ahead of 2027 desired to cut down Oshiomhole by opposing Oshiomhole’s man for the governorship. GWG.ng reports that the same conspiracy against Oshiomhole by the top echelon of the APC was what led to the party losing the governorship election in 2020.
However, the choice of Okpebhelo was firmly rebuffed by Senator Adams Oshiomhole, the immediate past governor of the state. Oshiomhole who had refused to endorse Ize-Iyamu, the man he damaged in 2016 and marketed in 2020, for whatever reason opted for Rep Dennis Idahosa, popularly known as Denco as the next governor.
It was no shock for many that the election conducted by Oshiomhole’s bosom friend, Uzodimma would deliver his protegee, Idahosa.
The choice was against the popular traction for power shift that was resonating across the three major political parties.
Oshimhole’s political ascendancy was cut short when the party to his shock cancelled the Uzodimma primary that returned Idahosa and ordered a rerun.
In the rerun, Okpebhelo ably backed by Ize-Iyamu, and the party hierarchy easily triumphed, a development that was set to reduce the political hegemony of the former governor.
Oshiomhole’s fate as a political hher compounded by Okpebhelo’s decision to choose Rep Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama as his running mate. Ogbeide-Ihama from Oredo, one of the local government areas straddling Benin City, the state capital, is a popular politician who became the first lawmaker to win re-election in the constituency. His choice as a running mate was despite the fact that he was in the PDP.
GWG.ng reports that after the emergence of Dr Asue Ighodalo as PDP governorship candidate, Ogbeide-Ihama and his group in the Legacy PDP had sealed an agreement that would have made him the running mate to the APC candidate. It was a probable ticket that would have caused much more problems for the PDP.
However, the Oshiomhole camp moved swiftly and prevailed on the presidency to compel Okpebhelo to choose Idahosa as running mate. The argument was that doing otherwise would be a disgrace to the former governor and senator. The intrigues that followed were part of a plot to reduce Oshiomhole’s influence in Edo State.
At a meeting at the party headquarters on March 18, the party announced Idahosa as the running mate. Many believe that it was the first time that Oshiomhole congratulated Okpbehelo over his primary victory a month earlier.
The pictures of the event showed a smiling Oshiomhole grinning in contrast to Okpebhelo who wore a mournful outlook as if a running mate had been foisted on him.
However, following the development, Oshiomhole fully came to take dominance of the APC campaign machine and quickly positioned his men in the campaign structure.
Remarkably, in the days and months following, Pastor Ize-Iyamu also went into the background to the extent that while the two men campaigned for Okpebhelo, they were rarely seen together on the same occasion on the campaign rostrum.
GWG.ng reports that should Okpbehelo emerge victorious today, the issues from the primary are predicted to shadow the government he will form given the contradicting political allegiances that erupted during the primary election.
The issues in the PDP are not also less intriguing. The intrigues in the PDP were mainly centered on the revolt of the original members of the party against what they saw as the decision of Governor Obaseki to push through a non-political actor as his successor.
Many politicians who followed him to the PDP from the APC even at the cost of their relationships were grossly disappointed. Comrade Philip Shaibu, the deputy governor of the state whose impeachment was voided by the courts was particularly outstanding in the ranks of those who believed they were used as sacrificial lambs by Obaseki. Shaibu in his loyalty to Obaseki even abused and mocked his ‘father’, Oshiomhole. They were only reconciled a week ago during an APC campaign at Uzaire.
In approaching his choice of Ighodalo, one of Nigeria’s leading corporate players and also brother to popular pastor, Ituah Ighodalo, Obaseki tried to make up with the Chief Dan Orbih-led Legacy PDP.
For the first time since he became governor, Obaseki attended the popular annual Christmas party hosted by Orbih in his Ogonna home base last December. Ighodalo also came along. While Orbih received them albeit warmly, he perhaps was offended by the decision of Obaseki to also choose Osarodion Ogie as running mate, a decision that left the mainstream PDP out of the ticket for the second time running. It was apparently a slap that Orbih was not ready to take.
It was as such no surprise that almost all those disaffected by the emergence of Ighodalo drifted towards Orbih who as national vice-chairman of the PDP remained the mainstay and strategist of the anti-Ighodalo campaign.
For whatever reason, Orbih like his friend Nyesom Wike, has remained in the PDP even if the APC script for the election is reportedly being passed through for his approbation.
GWG.ng reports that Orbih’s opposition to the emergence of Ighodalo has also been fanned by the emergence of Okpebholo as the APC candidate. The APC candidate and Orbih were close associates of Chief Anenih. It was also gathered that Orbih was among the chief plotters of the script to make Ogbeide-Ihama the APC running mate.
After that move failed, the PDP in a last-ditch move to win over Orbih and the Legacy PDP named him into the governorship election campaign council. It was one of the deft moves that compounded the intrigues in Edo and a move that reportedly rattled Orbih as it would have portrayed him as a betrayer of the anti-Obaseki chorus.
The National Vice-Chairman openly came out to denounce the listing, a move that reassured his group and further fueled the rebellion.
But how the rebellion and intrigues actualise to reality today will be defined on how the electorate in Edo can distinguish Ighodalo from Obaseki and make comparison between the three major candidates.
GWG.ng reports that the Labour Party candidate, Akpata is entering today’s contest with the bounce of being the only candidate from the largest ethnic group which has about 60% of the voting population.
He has also been boosted by the fervent support of Mr Peter Obi and a section of the dominant Obidient Movement. However, against the thrust of the crave for power shift and the traditional assertion of equity by the Benin political class, his aspiration has been challenged by the inclination of the political elite in Benin for Ighodalo.
Senator Ehigie Uzamere the first Benin man to have won re-election to the Senate, albeit on the platform of two different political parties, and Hon Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, the Bini-born campaign manager for the PDP in separate assertions told GWG.ng that the support for Ighodalo was based on the political enlightenment and erudition of the Bini.
However, whatever happens today, the political space in Edo State in the near future will be defined by the kind of intrigues that brought forth the major candidates.
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