Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, on Thursday announced his withdrawal from the party’s primaries slated for (today) February, 22, 2024.
BusinessDay reports that Ogbeide- Ihama, was the immediate past House of Representatives member, representing Oredo Federal Constituency and also one of the nine aggrieved aspirants that protested against Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu-led ward delegates congress.
Ogbeide-Ihama, in a letter addressed dated February 12, 2024 and addressed to the National Secretary of the party, Sam Anyanwu, said he withdrawn from the primary because the process had been unjustly skewed to favour a particular aspirant.
He explained that the failure by the appeal panel to address their petition before them made him to discontinue.
He added that failure by the delegates congress’s appeal panel set up by the national working committee to address, their petitions made he to discontinue his participation in the primary.
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It was, however, gathered that he opted out of the primary to accept the position of a running mate to Asue Ighodalo if emerged as the party’s candidate.
According to the letter, he said over a year ago, in response to the overwhelming calls from a diverse section of our citizenry, | began the painstaking consultation process with various stakeholders in our state.
“Based on their response, | set out on the Journey of contesting for the governorship position of Edo state, following all the laid down processes provided by our party’s National Working Committee.
“Unfortunately, the process was corrupted by the several irregularities that marked the ward congress organized by our party In Edo State.
“| and eight other aspirants voiced our dissatisfaction with the transparency of the process and the culpability of the committee that was sent to oversee the process. It was glaring that the process had been skewed to favour a particular aspirant unjustly.
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“As committed party members, we followed established processes to express our dissatisfaction by approaching both appeal panels set up to address issues arising from the congress with evidence of apparent violations of the guidelines published by the party.
“Unfortunately, the National Working Committee’s continued intention to deny aspirants a level playing field sadly ignored the recommendations from both panels.
“This situation has made it impossible to continue with a process in which 1 have lost confidence in its Integrity and credibility.
“Having consulted with my family, key stakeholders, and supporters, | have taken the hard, honourable, and logical decision to withdraw from the process of selecting a candidate for our party for the 2024 Edo Governorship Elections”, he said.
He, however, promised to communicate his subsequent next line of actions to his supporters when necessary.
