Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the September 10 governorship election in Edo State.
The Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Nick Dazang, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja.
With this, the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the PDP has lost out.
Dazang said the decision to accept Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the PDP National Caretaker Committee, led by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, was informed by the court decision on the matter.
“The commission collected the nomination from Makarfi-led faction because he has a court judgement that says INEC should accept his candidate.
“Secondly, you will recall that it is only his own faction of PDP primaries that the commission monitored,’’ Dazang said.
The Sheriff faction of the PDP submitted the name of Matthew Iduoriyekwemwen as its candidate for the polls.
Dazang said the commission had received nomination forms from 19 political parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He listed others as: Action Aliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ACD), Advance Congress of Democrats ( ACD), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Independent Democrats ( ID) among others.
INEC had earlier said that it would await final outcome of court cases in deciding on PDP’s candidate for the governorship election in Edo.
The Makarfi group, supported by all organs of the party, including the Governors’ Forum and the Board of Trustees, conducted its primary on June 20 in Benin and elected Osagie Ize-Iyamu as candidate.
On June 29, in another primary also in Benin, but was not supervised by INEC as required by the Electoral Act, Sheriff’s faction picked Matthew Iduoriyekwemwen as the party’s candidate for the election.
It will also be recalled that a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on July 4 held that the May 21 national convention that removed Sheriff as chairman and constituted the National Caretaker Committee was duly constituted.
The court also declared that the dissolution of the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee by that convention was valid.
In the judgement, Justice Abdullahi Liman declared that the appointment of the caretaker committee to oversee the party’s affairs was legal and in line with the provisions of PDP Constitution.
