Professor Julius Ihonvbere, the Majority Leader has become one of the casualties of the ongoing All Progressives Congress, APC congresses across the country to select candidates who will represent the party in the 2027 elections.
After two terms, in the Green Chmabre, as the Lower House of the Nigerian National Assembly is well known, he will not be returning to Abuja, next year with a new set of lawmakers to be elected.
Not a few incumbent lawmakers from the state and across the country have lost the primary elections, and will not be going back to the Chamber next year.
The lawmaker, representing Owan Federal Consttuency lost his return bid during the primary election in Edo state where he was defeated by a former commissioner for Mining, Andrew Ijegbai, who won the election by scoring 3,695 votes to claim the ticket after defeating the Professor and other five aspirants who participated in the election.
Announcing the results, at the APC state Secretariat the Returning Officer for the election, Kelvin Mohammed said Ijegbai scored the majority votes, and would now represent the party next year during the election.
Mohammed said: “Five people contested this election. They are Hon. Andrew Ijegbai, Hon. Abdul Oroh Professor Julius Ihonvbere, Hon. Folly Ogidegbe and Barrister Stewart.
“The scores are as follows: Honourable Andrew Ijegbia scored 3,695 votes. Honorable Abdul Oroh scores 1,740 votes while Professor Julius Ihonvbere scored 1,005 votes.
“Honourable Folly scored 505 votes. Barrister Scot scored 642 vote. Total vote cast is 7,587 and the winner of this contest which is the primary is Hon. Andrew Ijegbai.”
Meanwhile, the magazine reports that Benjamin Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps has secured the APC ticket to contest next year’s election.
The development, analysts say, may have succintly put paid to his rumoured bid for the state governorship election.
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