Ribadu, Abe, Usani others lose as panel submits report
The appeal panel set up by the national working committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to look into the petitions arising from the Imo State governorship primary election, has upheld the election of the governorship candidate, Mr. Uche Nwosu, son-in-law of the governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha.
The panel which is headed by a former governor of Edo State, Prof. Osunbor Oserheimen, dismissed the petitions filed by other governorship aspirants Messrs Chucks Ololo, Chris Nlemoha and Chima Anozie who called for a total cancellation of the primary election.
They had in their separate petitions, claimed that the exercise was marred by irregularities, which made it impossible for them and their supporters to participate in the primary.
But the Panel after its sitting adopted in whole the report of the Ibrahim Agbabiaka’s Governorship Election Primary Committee which conducted the primary.
Nwosu was declared winner of the election by the committee after polling the highest vote of 269,542 to defeat his closest rival, Ololo who scored a total of 6,428 votes.
Meanwhile, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the senator representing Rivers East, Mr. Magnus Abe and the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Usani Uguru Usani lost their appeals at the panel.
The two petitions against the governorship primaries in Rivers by Abe and Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs were not upheld, while the only petition from Delta written by Prof. Pat Utomi was dismissed and tagged “overtaken by event”.
Others who lost out in the governorship race in Adamawa State in accordance with the committees report included the brother to the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, Alhaji Mahmoud Halilu, president of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Bala Bobboi Kaigama and Ogun State governor, Mr. Ibikunle Amosun who lost the opportunity to have his choice candidate returned as the party’s flag bearer.
