Edo 2016: Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Emerges PDP Flagbearer

Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, on Monday emerged the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the September 10 governorship election in Edo.

In the result of the primaries announced by Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state, Chairman of the committee that conducted the exercise, Ize-Iyamu polled 584 votes to defeat two other aspirants.

His closest opponent, Mathew Uduoeyekemwen, according to Umahi, scored 91 votes while Solomon Edebiri polled 38 votes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ize-Iyamu was Secretary to the State Government during former governor of the state, Lucky Igbinedion’s administration of 1999 to 2007.

He was South-South leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) before defecting to the PDP in 2014.

Umahi said that 713 delegates were accredited for the primaries from a total delegates’ list of 751, adding that there were no invalid votes.

Presenting Ize-Iyamu to the party members, primaries committee chairman thanked all PDP governors and members for their support which led to the success of the exercise.

In his acceptance speech, Ize-Iyamu commended the national leadership of the party and the electoral committee for transparency and fairness in the process.

He said that the fight to reclaim Edo would continue until the party produced the governor in the September election.

Before the collation of results, the three aspirants said that they were satisfied with the process, describing it as transparent, free and fair.

This is coming after Godwin Obaseki, the Chairman of the Economic Team of the state, won the All Progressive Congress, APC‘s primaries in the early hours of Sunday June 19th.